Faith and Feather
by Cheloya
Summary: OLD. Rewrite on hiatus. Nearly two years after Sephiroth's fall, AVALANCHE regroups at Yuffie's behest to track down the murderer/kidnapper of the Five Mighty Gods. The disappearance of Godo and Staniv, however, is just the beginning... YV.
1. Let There Be Heroes

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII, nor any of its characters or components. I do own all that you did not see in FFVII. Don't steal, or Raven will come to find you with her spoon. And she will dig out your liver and eat it.

A/N: This has been in the works for at least six months. I thought of it, but refused to start writing until I knew precisely what I was talking about. Now that I have that covered, I've decided to begin. Forgive the very mysterious writing style of the first few paragraphs - it fades back into my regular style shortly after. :) Huge thanks go to Wyrren Sarrasri, who introduced me to FF and encouraged me to write this. Be warned, Wyrr - it's much, much longer than I thought it would be!

**Faith & Feather**

Chapter One: Let there be Heroes

In the north, where the land stretches itself thin for dominion over the ocean, where it throws up cliffs and mountainsides to hold the great Mother out of its room, there is a place so desolate and windswept that even the humans that have infected the surface of the Planet like parasites do not dare to go. The wintry land is so bitterly cold that the sun, on most days, passes it by, so desperately, evilly barren that only the very strongest and harshest of the Planet's creatures can survive. Yet even the monsters no longer visit the Crater. There the blood of the Planet rages through her veins, perceptibly stronger than anywhere else on the surface. There the Planet weeps her loudest as she toils to repair the waste that was laid to her ice-crusted face. There waits the wraith.

It hovers, its cries a silent ringing chill of loneliness and regret. It is borne by the Planet's grief, held aloft by Her hope and locked in place by its own desperate reaching for something whose name it has forgotten. It howls, something only those with horrible experience or extreme empathy could hear. Out to the ocean, something stirs and begins to weep, a choked sound that echoes along dark corridors. _Don't leave me here, alone._ To the west, something jerks from disturbed slumber and screams to combat tears. _Don't hurt me any more. I'm sorry._ And to the east, something sighs and shies from the call. _Let me lie._ The wraith calls to them all, despairing in its loneliness. And the Planet cries with the wraith and calls for someone, anyone, to come to her aid this last time...

- - - - - - - - - -

A scream, a falling platter, the sound of shattering porcelain. A moan of horror and a cry for help. Footsteps running, frantic for another human, an explanation, anything alive. Blood coated walls reflect dim light through the doors. Door like an evil smile as it waits for the next venturer into the darkness within. The footsteps of serene authority and on the orders of a girl shutters are flung wide. Then the authority shatters and the footsteps race up flights of stairs to fling wooden shutters wide. The heavy stench of blood through the whole building, shattering the tranquillity that once resided in the structure. She slumps and starts to cry, shocked, hopeless sobs. A broken orb flashes and lies still. The girl reaches out to prise it from fingers long gone cold.

"…Leviathan…"

- - - - - - - - - -

Tifa hummed softly under her breath as she polished glasses. This was the life she loved, the life she craved - absolute simplicity, keeping an inn, giving her customers a place to have a good time. She had everything she needed right here. _Final Heaven_ was her business and her home. And with all - or most, she thought with a mental sigh - of her friends gathered around her again, she thought she might have been the happiest woman alive.

It had been a year since they had defeated Sephiroth; a year since Midgar had been all but obliterated by the force of the Planet's protectors and Meteor. Nearly a year since she had dismissed the wreck of _Seventh Heaven_ and opened _Final Heaven_ in Kalm. She set down the polished glass beside a gleaming row of its twins, and looked out across the bar.

At a large table in the centre of the bar sat Rude, Elena, Cid and Reeve, playing poker. Judging by the steady flow of obscenities she could hear coming from Cid, the old pilot wasn't doing too well. Rude was utterly silent, his face serious and his eyes masked completely by the large dark glasses that were more constant companions to him than Elena and Reno. He was undoubtedly winning. Elena and Reeve had teamed up after Reeve had lost within the first few minutes. Elena, despite her larger experience with Rude, was still unable to read his bluffs. She leaned over to Reeve and whispered something, making Cid scowl and thump the table in annoyance. His cigarette, which had become one long, cylindrical ash, wobbled dangerously as he growled, "Dammit, am I the only one not cheatin' at this table? It ain't fair to team up, and it ain't fair that you get to wear those glasses, Turk!" Rude's head swung towards Cid, the glasses revealing nothing of that which was behind them. Cid scowled and went back to grumbling quietly to himself. Tifa giggled to herself. It seemed the bald Turk did not like to be accused of cheating.

Across the other side of the bar, at (and under) several smaller tables were Barret, Marlene and Red XIII. Red was stretched out beneath the table, his muzzle moving slightly as he spoke with the muscle-bound black man and his daughter. Occasionally he flicked his tail away from Marlene, who seemed determined to burn herself or die trying. Tifa could just hear Barret's deep voice above the ominous rumbling of the thunder outside. She ducked her head to peer out the window, surprised that it hadn't rained yet. The clouds had been gathering since a week ago, as thick and dark as murky water. Lightning flashed and thunder crackled through the skies, but still no rain fell. Tifa sighed to herself and picked up her dishcloth fretfully. She hated this sort of weather.

Shaking herself away from her worries, she grinned slightly at the sight of Reno passed out on her bar. Later, she would have to disinfect viciously, but at the moment it was kind of cute, a twenty year old sleeping like a baby - albeit that he was drooling all over her previously nice clean bar. She grimaced and turned to the other man in the bar. Cloud Strife was sitting by himself at the end of her bar, staring at the same mug of beer he'd been staring at for the past hour and a half. Tifa folded her dishcloth and leaned over to talk to him.

"Hey, Cloud. What's the matter? You've barely said a word all night."

The blond man looked up from his mug as though startled. "Huh? Oh… nothing, Teef… just thinking." He smiled at her, trying to be reassuring. Tifa put on a stern expression and he sighed. "I was just thinking it would be nice if we could have found Vincent and Yuffie. It's just not the same without them." He made a face. "There just isn't enough high-pitched giggling and periods of ………" He trailed off pointedly.

Tifa laughed. "I know how you feel. I miss them, too… I really wish Yuffie could have come. I can't believe she's actually that into restoring Wutai that she's listening to her dad when he tells her not to go away from the place!"

"Yeah." Cloud agreed with a snort. There was a long pause.

"We did all we could to find Vincent, Cloud. We asked around at Nibelheim and we went to the waterfall. Where else could he be?"

"That's exactly what I don't want to think about." Cloud admitted. Tifa grimaced, though she, too, was worried about the red-cloaked man. She picked up her dishcloth again, winding it through her fingers as she worried. Cloud watched her for a few seconds, then snatched it from her hands.

"Quit worrying, Tifa. We did what we could, remember?" He gave her a grin, then tossed the dishcloth onto the bench behind her. Tifa shook her head at him and laughed.

A sudden, unprecedented silence fell. Cid's cigarette fell to the floor, stirring the cloud of smoke wreathing the poker table. Reno jerked and nearly fell off his barstool. Tifa looked towards the door in surprise as the sound of feet hurrying up her stairs reached them through the sudden gap in the thunder.

"…I told everyone in town I was closed tonight…"

Fists pounded the door and a voice no one expected to hear yelled, "Hey! Guys, let me in! Let me in!"

Tifa's eyes widened in delight. "Not by the hair of our chinny-chin-chins!" She all but leapt the bar in her rush to get to the door first. She flung the door wide and let out a gasp of surprise. Where she had expected to see a short teenager with dark hair and a cheeky expression stood a walking mud-monster.

"Well, nice to see you, too, Boobs!" It shrilled, crossing its arms. Tifa let out a cry of dismay and tugged it inside, wine coloured eyes concerned.

"Yuffie! What have you been doing? I thought you said that Godo wouldn't let you come?"

Yuffie's head dropped forward, but she clenched her jaws and looked up again stubbornly. "That's what I came to Kalm about. I hoped you'd all still be here." She took a deep breath, digging in one pocket of her faded khaki shorts for something. "Godo's disappeared along with Staniv. Chekhov, Shake and Gorkii are all… dead." She looked grave. She thrust out a hand before her. "And look what happened to my Leviathan!"

- - - - - - - - - -

The shore of the Northern Continent was mostly made up of sheer cliffs. To the east there was a bay, but that was far from here. The tall, unforgiving cliffs looked out onto the ocean. Waves beat themselves futilely against their feet, hurling chunks of ice, driftwood and other debris at the ice-crusted rocks. And, running lightly across the surface of the churning ocean, there came a black Chocobo. It warked optimistically as it saw the land and dodged projectile icicles as it scrabbled its way up the cliff. The man that clung to its back urged it on quietly. His cloak was scarlet, waterlogging turning it a darker shade of blood red. He held the reins of the Chocobo in one hand, but the other not-so-human appendage was closed carefully around a large gun. Vincent Valentine was by no means a cruel or evil man, but to look at him, one wouldn't know it. Wild black hair was only partially tamed by a scarlet bandanna, which covered his forehead all the way down to his blood red eyes. The black Chocobo reached the top of the cliff safely and warked proudly, taking a moment to rest before issuing a querulous chirp. Vincent fed her a green, which she ate ravenously, and stroked her feathered crest.

"Not much farther, 'Sydia..." He muttered to her. Wary eyes surveyed the landscape. In truth, he wasn't sure where he was going. He nudged Obsydia along and she started to move again with relentless good humour. Vincent had raised her all by himself, refusing, when the time came, to give her up for a gold. She was a faithful Chocobo, one of the few who did not flee, squawking, the moment they sensed him near. He bent closer to her neck to shield himself from the icy wind, using his knees to guide her where he thought she would have the least trouble. After several hours of trekking, he slowed Obsydia's pace, eyes fixed on a slight green glow above a rise. So his wandering had led him to the North Crater. He should hardly have been surprised. Everything seemed to end the way it begun - why not here? He swung himself down and Obsydia nuzzled him affectionately. Vincent ruffled her feathers and dug out some more greens.

"Stay here," he told her firmly. She warked cheerfully and gobbled the greens, then scratched at the snow in an almost thoughtful manner as he gathered some wood together. He didn't need the warmth, but Obsydia certainly did - a day of running through freezing temperatures was not what she was accustomed to. He stacked the wood haphazardly together and held out his hands. "Fire!" The wood crackled alarmingly with the spell, but was soon burning away merrily. Obsydia cooed and scratched out a nest for herself near the blaze. Vincent looked at the long climb to the Crater and at the fire. He wanted to reach whatever he was searching for completely rested. He lay down in the snow between Obsydia and the Death Penalty. "Keep watch, 'Sydia."

Obsydia cooed softly and nudged the red-cloaked man reassuringly. She nearly jumped out of her skin when his PHS rang.

Vincent sighed softly, too tired to be jumpy, and answered it. "…Vincent speaking."

"Oh Vincent, you _are_ there!" Tifa sounded relieved. "I've been calling and calling…" Vincent knew. He had been trying to ignore the PHS and trying to cut AVALANCHE out of his life as easily as he had everything else. Somehow it had not worked as it should have.

"Vincent, we've been so worried… where are you?"

He looked around as Obsydia settled down again, scolding loudly in Chocobo-speak. "Somewhere." He said bluntly. Tifa laughed. "I am on the Northern Continent."

"Oh… what are you doing there?" Tifa wondered aloud. When he didn't answer, she moved on hastily. "It doesn't really matter… look, Vincent, we've got trouble. Yuffie's dad has gone missing, and we're all going to Wutai to help her out… we were hoping you would come, too, since you would be able to help, having been a Turk and all…"

Vincent considered. As much as he hated to purposefully recall his days as a Turk, they were there, and the skills he had learned were of use to his friends. "…I am pursuing something else at the moment… but I will join you in Wutai as soon as I may." He could sense Tifa's reservations. After a long hesitation, she started to speak again. There was a "Yoink!" from the background and then-

"Hiiiiiiiii Vinnie!"

Vincent winced and held the PHS away from his ear. "Hello Yuffie."

"So, Vinnie, what's up? Where are ya?" Vincent found it incredibly difficult to believe that Yuffie's father was missing and three of her closest advisers were dead.

"I am nearly at the North Crater." He replied. Yuffie made an interested noise.

"Whatcha doin' all the way up there, Vinnie?"

Vincent considered this. He wasn't entirely sure. He only knew that he had felt some strange need to travel. Something was tugging at him, urging him onward, even as he spoke. He looked at the lip of the crater, high above his head. "I am not certain. I will tell you when I find out."

"Sounds like a groovy mystery!" Yuffie declared. When he did not respond, she sighed loudly into the phone. "Vinnie, you need to watch more cartoons. Speaking of groovy mysteries… you'll come help me with mine, right?" Vincent stifled a smile. Now he could hear part of her grief showing through in her tone, an uncertain quality he had rarely heard before in the young ninja.

"I promise that I will come to Wutai as soon as possible." He told her, knowing she would accept no less. Yuffie let out a delighted squeal that made him wish he had refused.

"Knew ya couldn't resist me, Vinnie!" She giggled. If Vincent had been a different man, he would have rolled his eyes. Instead he stared straight ahead, wondering, not for the first time, why he was so unnaturally attached to these people. "So, I'll see you soon, right?"

"As soon as possible, Yuffie." Vincent reiterated.

"Okay then, Vinnie. See you in Wutai!"

"Good bye, Yuffie." There was a beep on the other end. Vincent wondered idly if Yuffie was even now being scolded for hanging up on him, if Cloud had wanted to speak to him. He shrugged, pocketed the PHS, and curled up beside Obsydia again. Even he could not survive without some warmth in a place like this.

- - - - - - - - - -

Elena sighed boredly as she tapped her fingers disconsolately on the railing that lined the bow of the bridge of the Highwind. It was a beautiful airship, there was no doubt about it, but it was just so _boring_. Reno was down in the cargo hold sleeping off his hangover, and Rude was outside on the lower deck, staring out at the same view she was, but without the reassuring safety of Perspex before him. She wondered why he did it - she didn't like heights at the best of times - hell, she was already feeling air sick - but to deliberately put herself through something like that… the very thought made her shudder. She looked over to her left, where Tifa stood, watching Cloud. The blond man stood behind Cid, who was piloting the airship himself. She knew one of the pilots in training had died in the crash a year ago, when the Highwind had plummeted into the core of the Planet. Since then, she supposed Cid had done it all himself. He was like that - too stubborn to hire more help.

She brought her attention back to Tifa. The tall woman had walked over to her and was offering her a smile. "Hi." She said. Elena cleared her throat.

"Uh. Hi." She replied uneasily. She wasn't sure how she felt about collaborating with old enemies, even though Reeve said so. She had made up her mind to hate AVALANCHE back in the time of Rufus Shinra, but now that she was working with them, she wasn't so sure. Tifa leaned on the rail and looked out through the Perspex beside her.

"So, what's really been going on in Midgar?" She asked conversationally. "Reeve didn't tell us much - I think he wanted to get away from it completely for a while."

"I can understand that." Elena responded, motor mouth taking over where her mind still whinged about Tifa being a part of AVALANCHE. "I mean, it's a huge leap going from Head of Urban Development to the President of Shinra and unofficial Mayor of Midgar. I don't know how he does it." Elena liked Reeve. He was the sort of nice, slightly crazy person that anyone at all could talk to, even when they didn't want to. Reeve was a regular, down to earth guy with too many problems for Elena to even start thinking about.

"No kidding. But he's optimistic about the future of Midgar?" Tifa inquired, rusty eyes wide with curiosity. She was one of those who found true pleasure in listening to other people, even when she was in trouble herself.

"Oh yeah." Elena agreed fervently. "He has the whole Shinra army helping to rebuild the place, except us. There are practically no guards anywhere in Shinra any more. It makes the people more inclined to think well of the company after everything that's happened, but I don't think it's too good an idea. I mean, we still have all the old Shinra weaponry and development plans and stuff…" Elena came to the sudden realisation that she had let her mouth run away with her again. She bit her tongue firmly to stop herself from saying anything more.

Tifa smiled. "Sounds like it's a busy place. Same old Midgar, huh?" At Elena's nod, she let out a sigh. "I miss my old sector, I guess… kinda ridiculous. I always hated the dump. But… it was home, you know?" She gestured to the ocean fling past beneath them. "I've been so many places now, it would be so easy to settle down anywhere. But… I'm glad I have Kalm. And _Final Heaven_."

_And Cloud?_ Elena wondered. She felt a stab of pain, missing Tseng for the billionth time. Anyone would think she would have let go of him by now, but she still missed the man fiercely. Even though he had been harsh on her at times, he had really made her feel as though she was a part of the Turks. He had gone out of his way to be nice to her, especially when she was just a newbie. Reno and Rude did no such thing. She sighed.

"What's up?" Tifa asked, not probingly, just a quiet invitation to let it all out if she needed to. Elena looked at the older woman and shook her head with another sigh.

"I just… I never really feel like I'm a part of the Turks. I know I'm part of the team now, but… it seems like I'll never be one of the group like Tseng was…" She looked down over the rail. "I'm not as good a shot, and I'm not as strong or as fast…" In fact, there was just about nothing she could do better than Reno and Rude.

"But you must have been let into the Turks for a reason, right? They don't let incompetent morons into high positions like that." Tifa reassured her. Elena sent her a look.

"Does 'Gya ha ha ha' sound familiar to you?" She asked snidely. Tifa let out a laugh.

"Okay, so he was the exception that proves the rule." She giggled. Elena poked out her tongue, but laughed as well, and immediately went into a spirited Heideggar impersonation. When she was done, Tifa was gasping for breath, tears of mirth streaming down her red face.

"Well, there's something you definitely do much better than Reno or Rude!" She laughed, leaning heavily on the railing. Elena grinned.

"That and hacking. I'm a computer nerd." She confessed. "I can't do much else as good as Reno and Rude can, but you give them a computer and they can barely turn it on, let alone use it. Actually, I think that's what got me into the Turks. They didn't have anyone who was fit enough to do the other Turks stuff as well as be a tech, except Tseng, but he was useless with the engineering side of it."

Tifa nodded. "Well, there you are then. A veritable host of talents." She smiled at the younger woman as the Highwind lurched. "You get air sick too, huh? So do Cloud and Yuffie."

"Yeah…" Elena muttered as she popped some pills into her mouth and swallowed them dry. "At least I'm not a baby about pills, like Reno. He's allergic to cats. Wouldn't be a problem if he'd take the pills, but you'd seriously have to hide them in his food for him to take them, and even then he'd probably sense them."

Tifa started to giggle again. "You're kidding, aren't you?"

"Heck no… hey, you remember the circus in Sector Three? _Well_. There was a drug bust there this one time, and Reno's wandering around with his eyes all puffed up, sneezing something chronic…"

"Oh no!" Tifa exclaimed, the perfect audience. Elena giggled.

"To make a really long, humiliating story short… he pretty much got held hostage because he was sneezing so hard he couldn't hear or see them coming…" Elena shook her head in amusement. "It was really scary at the time, but it was hysterical afterwards. We never let him forget it. Him, sitting there in the straw with his eyes and nose streaming and demanding that we 'acd like real Durks, dot some padsy cops frob a bad soap obra'."

Tifa covered her mouth with her hand to try to control her laughter. "I just don't see it." She admitted. "He always acts so cool."

"Come off it - he's the biggest sleaze in the history of the universe." Elena replied with a grin. She was strangely proud to be able to say this of someone as close as her brother. He really was, too. She let out an exclamation of joy as they passed over land again. "Land ahoy! I see Wutai!" She refrained from tap dancing. "I'm gonna go wake up Reno!" She dashed out of the bridge, leaving Tifa to watch the small village come closer. Foreboding twisted her insides. She didn't want to see what they would undoubtedly find there. She pushed herself away from the rail to go find Yuffie. The girl, still sick as a dog in the cargo hold, would need all the support she could get when they reached her village.

- - - - - - - - - -

Elena wrinkled her nose as she stepped into the cargo hold, the sickly sweet smell of vomit near making her lose her breakfast. She cast a sympathetic look in Yuffie's direction. The pale ninja waved her on with a weak and slightly delirious grin. "Don't mind the mess!" Elena nodded uncertainly and skirted the area on her way to the Chocobo stable. Her heels clopped loudly on the steel floor as she went on her way. She wondered if Reno would hear her coming.

Her unspoken question was answered as she opened the door to the Chocobo stable. Her leader was sprawled out across the straw, one arm flung up to protect his eyes from the light. She knelt as quietly as she could. "Reno?"

The response was muttered cursing. She hid a grin. "Come on, Reno. We've nearly reached Wutai."

"Why don't you and Rude go ahead, then?" Reno grumbled bitterly. Elena smiled slightly as she began to gently pull him to his feet, quite a feat for someone as short as she was.

"Because you're the leader, of course." She chided him cheerfully. Reno snorted, but struggled to stand up on his own two feet. He opened his eyes gingerly and let out a volley of swearwords. By the time they had staggered out into the cargo hold, however, he was walking normally, albeit blindly, with one hand on her shoulder and the occasional "Step."

They eventually made it out onto the observation deck, where Rude was leaning heavily on the railing. The whole craft jerked and tilted as Cid turned them for an easier landing. Reno swore and opened his eyes stubbornly so that he could actually keep his balance somewhat. Elena just gave in to fate and dropped to the deck, knowing there was no way she could stand with nothing to hold on to in high heels.

When they were once again on a straight heading on a smooth glide for what passed for Wutai's airfield, she got up and walked over to where Rude peered over the edge in apparent interest. She approached nervously, both hands out ready to grab the railing should the Highwind make any sudden movements.

"How can you stand to look down at this?" She asked Rude, clenching the railing tight it both hands. Rude didn't reply, but then, he rarely did. Elena's face tightened as they swept down towards Wutai. They hovered over the small town, near the square that held the great bell, Godo's mansion and the Pagoda of the Five Mighty Gods. She stared as one of the flight crew cheerfully unrolled a ladder and tossed it over the side.

"Welcome to Wutai." He joked, and disappeared back to his duties again. Elena looked down at the long climb and wished she could faint on command. As it was, she wasn't feeling too confident about facing that descent. Still…

"Solid ground!" She exclaimed enthusiastically, taking a few steps toward it. Yuffie, who had emerged with Tifa, uncovered her mouth for a few seconds.

"Amen to that." She muttered, before clamping the hand determinedly back over her lips again. Elena felt sorry for the girl - she sure as hell wouldn't want to go down this ladder in the condition! She put her hands on her hips.

"Why isn't Cid landing?" She asked, just as Cloud and Red sauntered out of the stairwell.

"Cid and Barret are going to land the ship outside of Wutai." Red assured her. "Yuffie wanted to get back into… her home without being seen by most of her people."

"It's not exactly comforting to see your new leader about to blow chunks." Yuffie added, voice slurred slightly. Tifa poked her younger friend in the shoulder.

"I don't know about that, Yuffie. It could be inspirational. Like, look what you'll go through for them." She suggested brightly. Yuffie (and a good number of the others in the vicinity) stared at her. Tifa coughed. "So… I'm going down the ladder first, because I'm not having anyone below me!" She announced, and swung herself confidently over the railing. Reno, ever the enthusiastic voyeur, made a slight protest, quelled by the glares he received from all females present, plus Cloud.

Elena gulped as she lowered herself carefully onto the rope ladder. It was times like these she really, really regretted her choice of shoe.

- - - - - - - - - -

In the scant morning light, a figure could be seen slowly ascending the outer rim of the crater in what had to be the most difficult way possible. Obsydia had been left at the base of the slope/cliff to save her energy for the quite probably not-so-triumphant return of her master. After several hours of determined climbing, falling and climbing again, Vincent made it to the top of the crater. Even without his abnormally keen eyesight he could have seen the sudden spurt of healing that the combination of Holy and the Lifestream had made a year ago. The crater was almost completely sealed over again, with only the occasional crack of doom in the black rock. Green mist seeped from these cracks, giving the crater an eerie, alien look. Vincent descended into the crater, senses on high alert for whatever had called him here.

Within the depths of his mind, he could feel the demon stirring itself to alertness. Vincent cocked back the hammer of his handgun, the Death Penalty still slung across his shoulders, as he made his way slowly into the middle of the crater. Chaos shifted, an almost nervous ripple in his subconscious. The thought gave him pause - what could make a demon nervous? He took several more cautious steps, then stopped, glancing around him. The call was gone, and yet he could see nothing that could have brought him here.

And yet…

Vincent squinted hard, straining with every sense he possessed. Was he being watched? He nearly snorted. It was a stupid question; he was always being watched. He very much doubted that anything watching him from outside his mind could be quite as terrifying as what lurked within it. He waved his claw in annoyance at the clinging greenish mist, which seemed determined to obscure his view with evilly shadowed curling wisps of nothingness. The green glow seemed slightly stronger there, before him. He took another step forward and let out a hiss of breath as the mist seemed to shape itself before him, coming together to form a definite shape, making his vision clearer around it.

…_Vincent…_

Chaos roared to life, shoving Vincent aside roughly as it rose to control him. Vincent let it take him, too surprised to even try to reject the demon's hold. The voice was insistent, but Chaos was taking him away, far away, and the voice was calling him, but it was getting weaker. The call of the wraith and the Planet went unheard as Vincent let the darkness take him.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Well… welcome to Wutai." Yuffie said wretchedly, turning as pink as the formal kimono she wore. As pretty as it was, she hated it - hated the lack of mobility, the weight of the many layers of cloth. She sagged under its folds, yet the conditioning of the last year immediately made her straighten her posture. She glided expertly toward the host of surprised and amused faces adorning her living room. AVALANCHE was not used to seeing its youngest member in anything formal, let alone something pink.

Yuffie cleared her throat embarrassedly. "Hey, it's not my fault. I have to wear this thing now. Wutaian custom and all." She sighed, but deep down she was kind of proud that she could wear this kimono and take on a position of this power by herself. Her mother would have been proud.

Cid, who had returned a little while ago with Barret, let out a guffaw. Tifa glared and elbowed him angrily, turning back to Yuffie with a delighted expression. "Yuffie, you look great!" She enthused. Yuffie smiled at her gratefully, but shook her head.

"Doesn't matter. Come on… I'll take you to the Pagoda."

She led them outside with her head held high and her heart sinking low into her ancient-style Wutaian sandals. The people who passed them bowed respectfully to the heir of Lord Godo. She was their rightful leader now, just as she had always wanted. Of course, now she _was_ the leader, she hated it - creeping around trying not to offend people and wondering if what she was doing was right. No great leader powers had come to her suddenly in a bolt of light - she was just the same girl she had always been. Yet the villagers suddenly had more respect for her, suddenly thought she had developed wisdom and power. She stifled a laugh as they ascended the steps into the Pagoda of the Five Mighty Gods.

"I hope you all have strong stomachs." She addressed the group quietly. Cloud frowned, but walked past her and opened the door into the Pagoda. The stale, metallic smell of old blood rushed out in a disgusting cloud to greet theme. Tifa coughed and tried not to be obvious about holding her breath, but Elena screwed up her face and covered her nose with both hands.

"Yuck." She commented through them. Yuffie shrugged helplessly.

"No one else will come near the place. They think it's cursed." She explained. "The second and fourth floors are just like this one. The third floor was Staniv's, and he disappeared along with Godo."

Cloud winced at the room he walked into. When last he had visited this place, it had been clean and fresh as all of Wutai was. Now it was rank, the blood-smeared carpet and walls all adding to a growing feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. He took a look around and made a noise of disgust in the back of his throat at the entrails suspended from the ceiling. "God…" He didn't even believe in such an entity, it was just that room had such a profound evil clinging to it that he summoned the only thing he could think of to rid the place of it. Tifa stepped bravely inside behind him and gagged.

"Oh God," She said with more feeling than he had. She covered her mouth as though she were about to be sick. "That's awful. Who would do something like this to someone like Gorkii?" She asked. Yuffie walked inside, unafraid. She had been here many times.

"I don't know." She whispered. "But I have to find out. No one does something like this to my people and gets away with it."

The Turks moved inside. Elena's distaste for the blood all around her was obvious. Reno wrinkled his nose as he walked around, hands in his pockets. Even Rude rubbed his hands uneasily before striding away across the room. Cloud let them - they knew more about this sort of investigation than he did. Instead he moved toward Yuffie. "You said there was some sort of insignia on Godo's floor?" He asked. Yuffie nodded.

"Follow me." Expertly in her robes, she hastened across the bloodstained floor and ran up the stairs. Chekhov's floor was similar to those down below, except that her hair had been cut off and strewn around the room along with the blood from her body. Cloud's stomach rolled. Who could do something like this, not just to some of Wutai's most powerful fighters, but to _anyone?_ Even Sephiroth had been relatively clean about his kills.

"I found the cracked materia here. Her hand was clenched around it. It was over there." Yuffie sounded sick. "I think she was left for dead, but she managed to grab it from whoever was here." It did, indeed, look as though the woman had dragged herself across the floor.

"Maybe whoever did this dropped the cracked Leviathan. Or maybe Godo dropped it as a sign and Chekhov wanted to make sure you'd get it." Tifa suggested, spooking them both. Cloud stifled an involuntary shudder as they ascended the stairs to the top floor of the Pagoda. He didn't even want to think about the creature that could do this sort of damage.

Cloud followed Yuffie up to the fourth floor, where they paused to breathe the fresh air. "Staniv always kept his windows open. He liked the air." Yuffie commented. The room was clean of the taint of the lower floors. Cloud took a few breaths of the cool, clean air before nodding to Yuffie to lead them on to the final floor.

The top room should have been as clean as Staniv's had been, but there, charred into the wooded floor, was a sigil twelve feet in diameter. A circle marked its outer limits, and on the inside was the silhouette of some sort of monstrous creature. Cloud stared at it, unable to comprehend the image.

"Do you recognise it?" Yuffie asked. When Cloud shook his head, mystified, she sighed in disappointment. "I thought it looked kind of like a serpent… see all the coils? But I just can't figure out who has this sort of mark. I have a chest of old scrolls, but since I left to find you straight away, I haven't been able to look through them yet."

Tifa cleared her throat. "Yuffie, why didn't you just call us with the PHS?"

Yuffie's face took on an innocent expression. "Well, we've had this storm that's been building since the day Godo disappeared. It was really bad, and I didn't think I'd be able to contact you."

"So you went across the ocean. Even though you get seasick." Cid filled in sceptically. Yuffie sighed.

"Oh, all _right…_ I took the batteries out 'cause they were flat, and the new ones wouldn't go in right, and I got really angry because I was sort of panicking and… I kinda through it at the wall." Yuffie was going redder by the minute. "And, uh, since all my walls are shoji, it kinda went directly into the fish pond…"

"Aw, #$, girl!" Cid remarked. "You mean I'm gonna have to fix it up?"

"I'm sure you'll manage, Cid." Tifa said comfortingly. Barret wandered over to the sigil and stared at it.

"That thing… is it just me, or is that thing really screwy?" He muttered, swinging his gun arm back and forth uneasily.

Heels on the stairs foretold Elena's arrival. The blond Turk got to the top of the stairs and sighed with relief at the room that was _not_ filled with blood and dead bodies. She bit her tongue when she saw the sigil burned into the floor. "Whoa… what is that?" She asked, clip-clopping closer to investigate. "I've seen this somewhere before."

"You have? Where?" Yuffie's response was immediate and frantic. She had to find out where her father was. Elena's brow furrowed.

"I'm… I'm really not sure. Sorry." She added, as Yuffie looked crestfallen. Barret swore under his breath and Elena looked discouraged. Her teammates were all downstairs with Red XIII searching for clues. She hadn't been able to stand the blood any more, so she had followed the rest of AVALANCHE to the top of the Pagoda. Now she was here, she was sort of wishing she had stayed downstairs. "I think maybe somewhere in the Shinra libraries, but-"

"Damn Shinra again!" Barret exploded.

"What's this about damn Shinra?" Reno interjected as he entered the room. Barret turned to him angrily.

"Damn Shinra's got somethin' to do with this - your girl there says she's seen somethin' like that before in the Shinra libraries!" He growled. Reno's aquamarine eyes narrowed in something like irritated amusement.

"What are you, thick? The Shinra libraries carry more than just information on what goes on inside the Shinra Company." He sneered. Barret scowled at the insult but to everyone's surprise, let it slide with no more than a, "Damn Turks…"

"Hey, we're not exactly thrilled to be working with you, either." Elena snapped, more confident now that her leader was around. "Reeve wanted us to help, so here we are. It doesn't mean we have to put up with you dissing us." She said, hands on hips.

"No one is dissing anyone." Tifa said firmly. "Right Barret?"

Barret's scowl darkened and he muttered something under his breath before storming back down the stairs. At a glance from Cloud, Cid shrugged and went after him, trailing cigarette smoke. Yuffie sighed.

"Well, if that's all you want to look at here, we can go back to my house…" She said tiredly. "I'll set you all up properly… start looking at those scrolls."

"I'll connect to the Shinra database and see if I can find anything." Elena volunteered as a peace offering. Reno nodded at her approvingly. Yuffie nodded in thanks, still not quite accustomed to the idea of the Turks being on her side. Still, she gave them the first room Elena attached herself to - it had a large open window that faced east and reached from the ceiling to the ground. A tiny bubbling fountain and a rock garden took up all the space two feet from the window. Three futons were soon set out upon the tatami matting. Eight pairs of shoes lined the doorstep of the ancient building. Elena had decided, by the time the sun set, that although slippers might look just fine on Tifa, Yuffie and herself, Cloud, Rude and Barret were three people that should never be allowed to wear them if she were to be expected to keep a straight face. It was probably this that made her keep to their room as she set up her beloved laptop and sat down cross-legged in the light from the window.

Yuffie poured over the crackly old scrolls at a low table while the others sat around her on cushions or just simply the padded floor. All the scrolls were in ancient Wutaian, so she was the only one who could decipher them. Tifa had already re-organised the kitchen to her liking and was starting on dinner for all of them.

"So, Elena likes her computers, huh?" Cloud asked by means of conversation.

"Yeah." Reno replied, eyeballing one of Yuffie's cats in an attempt to make it go away. For some reason, the creatures were always drawn to those who were allergic to them. After a few more seconds of uneasy, distracted silence he said, "She hacked into the Shinra system and made herself an employee. But she was pretty tactless about asking questions about where to go. Her family was pretty rich, so she probably got the best education out of most of the top scientists in Shinra." He shrugged. "Computer genius she may be, but she's still ditzy Laney to the rest of us."

Cloud nodded even as Yuffie shot a sideways glare at Reno from her table. She knew all too well what it was like to be known as a ditz. As Tifa walked in with cold drinks, she scowled at the scroll before her. It was nothing but old nursery rhymes. She discarded it in disgust and cautiously unrolled the next one, humming one of the tuneless rhyming story-songs as she did so. She remembered singing some of these when she was a child, but some of them she had never even heard of. Something about this made her sad. Who was there now to tell her what the tunes were? She sighed and went back to reading the Wutaian.

Reno made a smacking kissing sound as Tifa handed him his beer. "Thanks, babe." Tifa gave him a stern look and moved on to the others. Reno grinned and flopped back on the tatami matting, downing half of his beer in one swig. Oh, how he loved the icy burn tearing down his throat. There was only one thing that could ruin the beauty of the alcohol…

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

…and there it went. Reno sighed and snapped open his Shinra-standard PHS. "Reno." His eyes slowly widened as a male voice on the other end gave a hasty report. "What? Slow down." The others watched him in interest as the surprise on his face slowly became boiling anger. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll be right there. Hang on -" he covered the mouthpiece. "Strife, can we borrow the Highwind?"

Cloud looked to his left. "Cid?"

"I'm flying it." The pilot said immediately. Reno uncovered the mouthpiece again.

"Yeah, don't bother sending a chopper, it'll take twice as long. We'll be there as soon as we can." He hung up and jumped to his feet, reluctantly but automatically surrendering his beer. "Rude, get our things together while I get Elena to pack up. Reeve's been attacked."

- - - - - - - - - -

Vincent resurfaced just in time to feel the sharp stinging pain of his body ploughing into the icy ocean from a great height. He yelled in surprise and pain and inhaled a great lungful of salty water that burned even as it chilled him to the core. He clawed his way to the surface, coughing and hacking for air. When he could breathe properly again, he struggled to stay afloat as he called hoarsely for his Chocobo. Of course she wasn't around. Chaos had probably terrified the poor bird half to death. Vincent wondered if this was not the beginning of his own.

Floundering around above the water, he turned around until he saw land. It was not too far, at least by global standards. He coughed as a wave washed over his head and stared hard at the coast. It certainly _looked_ like the shoreline of Wutai. He supposed he ought to at least be thankful Chaos had flown in the right direction.

Vincent could feel the chill seeping into his bones. He had to get moving soon or drown, but really, what was the use? Could he make it so far with what little energy he had left? And then he would have to drag himself to the village of Wutai, no small journey in itself.

_Vincent, we've been so worried…_

What right had he to make them stop associating with him by giving up here? He had faced the loss of a friend too many times. If they truly regarded him as such, he had no wish to cause them grief by dying here. But why… why would they ever consider him a friend? Even when he was travelling with them, they had feared and avoided him.

_You'll come help me… right?_

Vincent sighed tiredly and struck out with a slow, determined sidestroke. He was not in the habit of breaking promises. Not even to irritating, whining, brattish ninjas who were probably just keeping him around for his materia, anyway.

- - - - - - - - - -

A/N: Oh my gods, that has to be the longest thing I have ever written! And this is just the beginning. Sheesh. 00;; Oh well, I'm not complaining. This is gonna be a really long haul, folks, but stick around, because it's one of the best planned things I've written. :)

Big thanks to Wyrren Sarrasri for being a very patient all around legend.

13/01/05 - Edit: New paragraph markers.


	2. A Cold Reception

Disclaimer: Don't own any characters from FFVII. I own this storyline along with Lana and Doctor Ayuki so far.

A/N: Here be the second chapter. Do enjoy, and please leave a review.

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter Two: A Cold Reception

"So tell me why we're here again?" Barret grumbled, massive arms folded across his chest. The black man, over six feet tall, was the founding member of AVALANCHE, though he had surrendered leadership early on. Impulsive and easily provoked, Barret made a formidable opponent for everyone but his daughter, Marlene. That was the source of his current irritation – though the Highwind had landed in the middle of Midgar, he couldn't go to see his baby because of the Shinra guards being on high alert since the attack on their President.

Cid gave a soft snort as he fiddled with the wires of Yuffie's broken PHS. "The kid told me to take the Turks here 'cause he was worried about damn Reeve." Cid said for the third time, only patient enough to do so because he was concentrating on the job at hand. Even in an absent-minded conversation he couldn't resist stirring Barret's temper, though. "Thought I'd need some help, apparently, though why he sent you and the cat goes way over my head."

"Shu' up, old man." Barret muttered in annoyance, swinging his muscular arms down by his sides. Cid chuckled wheezily. "Where is that dang cat anyway?"

"Who you callin' old? You're older than I am." He said in protest. "Red's sleeping around somewhere probably." Barret scowled and peered through the Perspex as a red-uniformed guard walked past stiffly.

"Damn it if I ain't worried 'bout Reeve, too. Damn Shinra. Just 'cause we ain't employees don't mean they gotta hold us under house… ship arrest."

"Mmm." Cid agreed absently. Barret swore softly for lack of something better to say and crossed his arms again, looking through the window of the bridge again at the half-repaired Shinra building. It would never be what it had been, but he was grudgingly impressed at the work they had done on the ruined building. Where once the tower had stood was an extensive graveyard marking all those who had died in both the Weapon's attack on Midgar, and the crash of Meteor. Somewhere there lay the grave of Rufus Shinra. Barret wondered if it would be truly bad form if he were to find it and spit on it.

The red-clad guard walked past the window again and saw Barret scowling down at him. He saluted and shrugged apologetically and Barret felt some of the annoyance go away. He was just a young kid, probably just new to the ranks of Shinra, and he was only doing his job. It didn't make him feel better about not being able to see Marlene, however. He made a dismissive motion with his good hand before he began to pace.

"Wonder what the damn Turks are doin'?"

Reno was getting pretty damn fed up with this doctor. She wouldn't let him in to see his boss – the third President to go down under this posse of Turks. He growled as she explained to him again why he couldn't see Reeve yet. He wasn't awake, she wouldn't risk disturbing him after such a horrible ordeal, he needed his rest… and yet she hadn't managed to tell him one useful thing about what had actually happened to the man. The panicking soldier on his PHS had been more useful than this bird.

"Yeah, fine." He snapped, cutting her off. "Shut up and listen to me, doc. If you're not gonna let me in to see him then tell me exactly what happened to him. What the hell happened to President Reeve?"

"I wasn't there, Mr Reno." Doctor Ayuki reminded him tartly from behind her square-rimmed spectacles. "No one was."

"Well, obviously someone was!" Elena retorted shrilly, having had more than enough of the snooty woman, herself. She waved a hand at the door to Reeve's ward. "I'm pretty sure he wouldn't attack himself. Let us in to see him. He'd allow it." Her brows were drawn together in a worried frown above her liquid brown eyes.

"I'm afraid I cannot – excuse me, sir – excuse me!"

Rude had apparently run out of patience for the older woman. He moved forward and calmly opened the door while she hissed furiously at him.

"Don't you dare go in there! You'll do him harm! Don't you dare!"

"Doctor Ayuki." Rude interrupted her coldly. "Find the last person who was in contact with Reeve and bring them to us."

"How am I supposed to know who-?"

"Find out." Reno ordered tersely, taking back command. Doctor Ayuki glared at him for several moments and then stormed off down the corridor, wooden clipboard clutched tightly under her arm. Reno sneered after her. She should have known better than to argue with the Turks.

Elena drew a chair up beside Reeve's bed. The man was pale, almost translucent in the dim ward light. His eyes were open only slightly, as though he were cringing with pain, but they were glassy and cold, as though he were dead. His chest was still, as though he wasn't breathing, despite the reassuring blips from monitors along the walls. Elena reached out to take one of his limp hands and let out a gasp as she touched it.

"He's like ice!" She whispered. "What's happened to him?" She sounded distraught, withdrawing her hand and crossing her arms about her as she shivered involuntarily.

"That's what we're gonna find out, 'Lena." Reno said confidently. Elena nodded distantly, as though she was unconvinced. Rude stood at attention at the doorway, silent. He moved back into the room. Not a word was spoken, but Reno looked up expectantly for the return of the doctor.

She entered, looking extremely annoyed. Behind her came a tall woman in a black tank top and the red SOLDIER uniform. Her skin was a dark coffee colour, but her hair and eyes were a strange shade of pink or magenta. Reno couldn't tell; he had never been much into knowing the names of all the different colours. To him the world was blue, green, red, yellow, white… but more often black and grey. Sometimes he resorted to words like 'dark' and 'light', but then, he didn't really have to describe things for those he reported to to know what he was talking about. He wondered if the tall woman's shoulders were broader than his own, or if it was just his imagination.

"This is Lana Meltzer." Ayuki grumbled, gesturing sullenly to the black woman. Meltzer saluted, then cocked her head to the side as she took in Reeve's condition with a disapproving frown.

"I'm Reno, this is Rude, and Elena." The redheaded Turk introduced them lazily. "You can go now, doctor." Ayuki shot him a poisonous look. She turned to leave.

"Wait, Doctor Ayuki… I'd like to see Reeve's records, if you don't mind. I don't understand what's wrong with him, so that might help me determine what happened." Having Rude stand menacingly behind her, Elena decided, was a good way to get things done. She walked out after the doctor. There was barely a moment's pause before Reno jerked his head at the door and Rude disappeared down the corridor after them.

Meltzer regarded him silently for a few seconds. "So, Reno, what do you want to know?"

Reno tried to be casual about it. He jerked his thumb at Reeve. "I want to know what happened to him. You were the last one to speak with him, right?"

"Right." Meltzer agreed, her magenta eyes darkening slightly as she gazed angrily at Reeve. "My squad and I had just returned from trying to put Sector Four to rights with the locals. They're still having trouble pulling down what's left of the plate, so we had to go in to help them get rid of it. When we got back, I went up to report to Reeve, as always. It was… maybe seven thirty, a little after. Sorry, I don't have an exact time." She added, looking chagrined. "I just had the usuals to report – which families had moved back in to Midgar, what seemed to be working, what wasn't. All the little technicalities he loves to hear. It was about quarter past eight when I left, and most of the lights were off. I passed the night patrol on my way out; they were doin' their job fine, getting my security clearance even though they know me by sight. I went back to my apartment – it wasn't 'til I came back in the morning I even knew anything had happened to him. Just for the record, I didn't see anybody up there, nor anythin' suspicious. It was all normal." She frowned. "Although on second thoughts, maybe it was too normal."

Reno nodded slightly. Meltzer shrugged. "Well, that's pretty much it. I saw the office, 'cause the next in line wasn't in yet… it was all messed up. Doctor Ayuki, when she got there, ordered it all cleaned up."  
"She did what!" Reno exploded, surprised and suddenly furious. Meltzer's eyes widened meaningfully at him and she snapped a finger to her lips in the universal gesture for silence. He nodded and muttered curses and oaths to himself as she continued.

"I sent a cadet to get a hold of you people and tried to delay the clean up as much as I could. I told her the Turks'd eat her liver, but she didn't listen."

Reno nodded and ran a hand through the forest of spikes that was his hair. "Damn straight… what a #$ing moron… Jesus, how does she think we're gonna figure this out now?" He shook his head tiredly. "Come on Meltzer. You can come up to the office and point out what you saw there. We'll pick up Rude and Elena on the way."

Meltzer nodded and smiled, snapping into a lazy salute. "Yes sir."

Elena flicked through the papers in front of her, a smile affixed to her face. Even with Rude standing guard at her back, she didn't feel safe around this doctor. So she bluffed – she read the data carefully, occasionally trying to look clueless as she digested the information. Finally, when she was sure she had the picture, she nodded to Doctor Ayuki with a vacuous smile.  
"Thanks very much, Doctor Ayuki. We'll go get Reno away from Reeve... it looks like he needs to be isolated!"  
"You do that." Ayuki replied coldly. She looked slightly relieved. "At least someone understands that the president needs his rest."  
"Of course. We'll go get Reno right away. Come on, Rude." With a bright smile up at her companion, she walked away down the wrong corridor.  
"Elena..." Rude raised an eyebrow and an arm, pointing down the correct corridor. Elena felt her cheeks go pink, even though she had planned this. She laughed nervously as she quickly walked back the right way. As soon as she was sure they were out of the doctor's earshot, she whirled around, fury simmering in her brown eyes.  
"Did you see her? She thought I was some sort of moron!" She hissed angrily. "That whole medical report was full of shit! Absolute bull shit! And-"  
"Elena, keep your voice down." Rude chastised her. Elena nodded and tried to regain her self-control. It wasn't easy. She was so sick of people assuming she was a brainless ditz! And all because she was blond. She growled in annoyance. It was enough to make anyone dye her hair.  
"Come on," she said sulkily, storming off along the corridor. She squeaked as she rounded a corner and ran into Reno. The fire-haired Turk raised his eyebrows at her.  
"Goin' somewhere, Laney?"  
Elena glared at him and crossed her arms. "Just to find you. That medical report is one hundred percent crap. Whatever is really wrong with Reeve is definitely not down there on paper."  
Reno nodded. "Thought as much. Meltzer here says that doctor ordered Reeve's office cleaned up after the attack."  
"What?" Elena's eyes widened again as she trotted behind the tall soldier and her leader. "But.. that's tampering with evidence! We can sue her for that!"  
"How about we focus on what we know instead of jumping to conclusions and making enemies?" Meltzer interrupted. She looked down at the shorter Turk with scorn in her pink eyes. "It's no good if we close off all the other possibilities because we've already made a decision over who's guilty here."  
"Who asked you?" Elena shot back before she could help herself.  
"I did." Reno said matter-of-factly. Elena wished for a second that he wasn't her superior and she could slap him. Instead she bowed her head and fell into step behind Reno and Rude, slowly falling behind.  
"Hey, don't take it personally."  
Elena's head snapped up in surprise. Meltzer had dropped back to talk to her instead of walking ahead with Reno and Rude. "Pardon?"  
"I said don't take it personally. I snap sometimes. I'm worried about Reeve. Don't mean I'm aiming it at you or anything." She held out a hand to Elena. "Lana Meltzer. You're Elena, right?"  
"Uh... yeah. Nice to meet you properly..." Elena blushed slightly, embarrassed at the first impression she must have given. Lana chuckled.  
"No problems." They walked in silence through a few corridors before they caught up with Rude and Reno. When they reached Reeve's office, Reno gestured to Lana.  
"Okay, Meltzer, tell us as much as you remember." He asked her. Lana moved into the room and looked around.  
"There were papers scattered all over the desk – some of them were on the floor, just there, near the chair. The chair had fallen over, like whatever happened to Reeve, he'd knocked it over, or been knocked out of it or something. The windows were locked and the glass was whole… no fingerprints or anything so far as the guys who were investigating before could find. Um." She hesitated uncertainly. "I'm pretty sure the hard drive of his computer was gone – it looks like it's been replaced, though. Damn. Uh... all the book on that shelf were missing... someone's filled up that shelf again, but I don't remember Reeve ever having those..." She frowned and moved over to inspect the bookshelf.  
"And you didn't see or hear anyone?"  
"Not a one... they must've already been here, or come in some way we don't know about, 'cause I'm telling you I was the only person in that corridor. You know how long it is. You can see into all the other offices, too, even with the shaded glass."  
"Yeah." Reno traded glances with Elena and Rude. "Damn. I don't know. We'll have to hang around."  
"Perhaps this is connected with Godo's disappearance?" Rude suggested. "Two leaders don't get attacked at the same time due to coincidence."  
"Yeah. Elena… much as I hate workin' with those guys, you'd better go down and tell Cid and Barret what we know. Get them to give the rest of AVALANCHE a buzz. Then... meet us in the Goblin's Bar."  
"Reno!" Elena complained. The red-haired Turk shrugged.  
"Hey, I'm thirsty. And besides – the most private place is a place where everyone can hear ya."  
"That's right." Doctor Ayuki's voice made them jump. She stood at the door, clipboard clutched to her chest. "Look who woke up."  
Reeve's pale countenance hovered behind her. He looked drained. Lana made a noise of annoyance. "What's he doing out of bed? You said yourself he needed rest, Ayuki!"  
"Oh, he's just fine." Ayuki murmured. "Just fine. You..." She laughed softly, raising a hand to politely cover her mouth. "For you it's a different story!" She clenched her fist and a blue glow immediately surrounded it. Reeve lumbered forward to swing at Reno, who jumped back in confusion.  
"What the hell!"  
Icicles erupted from the floor, chasing Elena backwards to the window. Lana leapt out of the way with a yell as the blond girl concentrated on dodging the sharp points. The same icicles shot out of the carpet all around Rude, trapping the tall Turk amid the icy bars. He drew back his fist and let fly, shattering the top of one, but another immediately grew up in its place. Reno dodged the blows Reeve aimed at him, getting more annoyed by the minute. How the hell was he supposed to win this fight? He couldn't hurt his boss! Growling, he tripped the other man. Reeve toppled to the floor like a tree felled with an axe, but he was soon scrabbling to get up again. Lana picked up the computer monitor and hurled it at Ayuki.  
The doctor's eyes narrowed, glowing fiercely behind her glasses. She dropped her clipboard and raised both her hands. The monitor shattered, but Ayuki barely flinched, only shying backward a little with the impact. For a moment she flickered double before the blue glow that had surrounded her hands wrapped around Reeve. He leapt at Reno, dealing the scrawny Turk a solid blow to the stomach and an uppercut to the chin. Reno staggered backwards, arms up to shield his face.  
"#$!"  
Rude struggled to break the bars of his icy prison as Reeve and the doctor turned to Lana. She scowled as the blue glow increased and leapt out of the way as a bolt of the energy crackled toward her. She picked up a potted palm by the trunk and swung it at Reeve as he aimed the blue glow again. The pot flew off the end and slammed into the doctor, shattering as it knocked her backwards. Reeve advanced towards Lana with slightly less vigour, but ducked her next swipe with the palm and head-butted her in the stomach. She dropped, coughing and clutching at her abdomen. Reeve looked up and started toward Rude.  
A gunshot rang out. Reeve stopped stock still, head shattered. Instead of blood, the remains of his neck were icy shards. The bullet had gone through him as easily as if he were made of cheap plaster. Ayuki clutched at her bleeding arm. "You will pay for this!" As Reeve crumbled into icy shards, the woman disappeared through the door. Reno started to go after her, but he yelled and covered his eyes as the perfectly normal atmosphere of the office suddenly raged with snow and a wind of hurricane proportions. When it died down, Ayuki was nowhere to be seen, and there was a great hole in the roof and a pit in the floor outside. Reno swore and went back into the office, where Rude was breaking an icicle bar in order to escape the circle. He dusted his suit free of the powdered ice and moved to break those that still surrounded Elena, calm and unruffled as ever.  
"That was a nice shot, Elena." He said encouragingly. She smiled weakly at him.  
"I am so glad that wasn't really Reeve. I would so have been fired." She joked lamely. Rude looked at the waist-high forest of stalagmites and reached out to lift Elena over them rather than break them all.  
Lana clambered to her feet, swearing. "Damn her. Damn her! I knew that woman was no good. Damn it. I guess Reeve's not even here – that thing down in the surgery was cold as ice, and no wonder. Damn." She glared down at the dark bruise already forming on her bare midriff. "Damn #$ing ice sculpture…"  
"Nice, Meltzer." Reno commented. "You're worse than me." He looked around the totalled office with a sigh. "You know what? Now I'm really thirsty. We can leave squad C to clean up this mess as best as possible... we know Ayuki had something to do with Reeve's attack, if she didn't orchestrate the whole thing herself."  
"She was the head of the Science Department." Rude commented.  
"#$. Not another screwball Science Head..." Reno sighed. He gestured tiredly to them. "Come on. Let's go get Barret and Cid and get drunk."

"What about Red XIII...?" Elena asked disapprovingly. Reno shrugged.

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind some warm milk with beer."

Tired grey eyes wearily scanned page after page of useless information. Her hands shook with fatigue as she rolled and unrolled scroll after scroll, the ancient, faded characters dancing before her eyes. Yuffie blinked, closed her eyes for several moments, and pushed herself away from the table. She couldn't read any more. The others had gone to sleep hours ago, but she had been determined to find something in the immense collection of barely legible ancient scrolls. She had to know who had taken her father. It wasn't really a matter of family loyalty; it was a matter of pride.

She got halfway to her bedroom before realising she would never be able to sleep while her mind still spun around all the information she had just read. She sighed. Guess I'll go for a walk.

Wutai was a very dark, quiet place in the dead of the night. Yuffie walked slowly, carefully silent. The larger hush of the slumbering town seemed too important to break, even to her. She passed a single torch on the worn path to the main district of the small town, and stopped in the tiny square in front of her house.

Her dark locks rippled in a quiet sigh of breeze, and when she tucked it into place behind her ears, she caught her breath. She could hear something. Very soft, but clear because it was so out-of-place, came the sound of metal on cobblestones. The soft, grating clinks developed into limping footsteps. Yuffie crouched, not wanting to be seen until she identified this midnight wanderer.

He moved slowly past the steps to the little square, bedraggled and travel-worn. She could hear wet squelches as he moved. Unless he had stepped in the river that ran through Wutai, the ocean was several miles to both the east and the west. The figure must have come a long way, Yuffie decided. This theory was supported by the figure's exhausted walk and apparent inability to move swiftly. Yuffie stood carefully. "Fru kuac drana!" She called fiercely in Wutaian.

The figure barely startled. Perhaps he was too tired. The head turned towards her and Yuffie saw the glimmer of red eyes. She felt a moment of fear, which turned to wonder and then hope. She knew of only one person with eyes like that.

"…E ys muugehk vun dra Myto Kisaragi yht AVALANCHE." The speech was hesitant, as though he had not spoken the language for some time, but the meaning was clear and Yuffie recognised the voice immediately. She let out a little sound of delight.

"Vinnie! It is you! Gawds, you look like hell and a half!" Forgetting all her hard-learned decorum, she ran down the stairs to fling a hug at him and made an extremely girly sound as she impacted. "Grossness! You're all wet!"

"I had noticed." Vincent replied from some distance above her head. "It occurred to me some time after I started swimming here."

Yuffie stared at him. "Was that a joke?" She pushed his arm lightly, trying to hide just how moved she was. "You really missed us, didn't you, Vincent?" Vincent shook his head slightly and set out at a faster limp. He had missed them, terribly, and it was not healthy that he had. Yuffie trotted beside him, the weight of her kimono forgotten. "So… you swam here? What happened to Obsydia?"

"Chaos." Vincent said shortly. At Yuffie's worried gasp, he added, "She will return to Nibelheim." He hated discussing the creatures with others. Yuffie nodded, seeming to understand this, and walked for a few minutes in silence beside him.

"Vincent, I can't set you up a futon tonight without waking everyone up." She said thoughtfully. "So… I guess you can have mine. Not like I was gonna sleep anyway."

Vincent stared at her. How she had matured! She found himself grudgingly impressed. "…?"

Yuffie picked up on the curious silence, just as she always had. "I'm going through some old Wutaian scrolls, looking for this sigil that's in the Pagoda." She said briefly in explanation. Vincent nodded, wondering what the sigil was. "You can see it tomorrow some time."

She led him up the stairs of her house, wincing at the noise of his boots. She waved a hand and pointed to them. Vincent obediently sat down to remove them, rather more heavily than Yuffie thought was normal. She looked on, surprised and concerned. She had to help him back to his feet.

Vincent tried to ignore her worried eyes as he concentrated on simply walking. It wasn't easy. His head was buzzing with the silence, his soft footsteps seeming to echo loudly in it. Yuffie led him to a largish room and carefully sat him down, as though he were an invalid. He bridled at the thought.

"Godo's things are in the chest just behind you. Get changed into them, okay?" She stood up, trusting that he could perform this simple task. "I'm going to get you some food. Do not go to sleep before you eat it, okay?" She disappeared into the darkness of the house.

Vincent stared at the clothes chest for several seconds before deciding that he wouldn't be able to get his numb fingers to work the latch, let alone lift the heavy lid in this state. He struggled with the clasps of his cloak, the damp making them more obstinate than ever. He had just shucked off his shirt and glove when Yuffie returned, bearing a tray with steaming rice, tea and a Hi-Potion. She paused at the door, then nervously entered and lay the tray on the floor beside the bed.

"Vincent Valentine, you're gonna freeze. I thought I told you to wear Godo's clothes…" She flung back the lid of the chest easily and rummaged through it until she found a long-sleeved shirt. "Put this on."

Vincent reluctantly donned the garment. His shoulders were narrower than Godo's by far, so the shirt hung from him as though he were a scarecrow. Yuffie glared at him until he clambered gracelessly into the futon. Then she handed him the tray, sat down next to the futon and watched as he began to eat ravenously.

"I thought plain food might be best." She said. Vincent swallowed a mouthful of rice.

"You can't cook anything else well, either." He replied, stating fact more than taunting her. Yuffie ducked her head, cheeks tinged pink with humiliation. Vincent added, "Thankyou."

"Oh… that's okay. We're team mates, right?" She said with a shrug. "Um… I guess you'd like to know what's going on… Tifa called me up for the reunion party on the day it happened. Godo and Staniv vanished as though into thin air, and the other Mighty Gods have been killed. There's blood and limbs all over the Pagoda. On the top floor is the Sigil… and I found a Leviathan materia cracked in two in Chekhov's hand." She showed it to Vincent. His eyes flickered dangerously bright before he took a breath and calmed himself enough to go on eating, bidding her continue with a nod.

"I went to Kalm to get everyone's help, and they came back here – well, Reeve sent the Turks 'cause he had to get back to Midgar. And… it was late afternoon when the Turks got a call saying Reeve had been attacked. But before that, Elena said she recognised the Sigil, except she didn't remember where from."

"And… you have no more clues?" Vincent asked, downing the tea in a gulp. He put the tray down, leaving the Hi-Potion. Yuffie shook her head.

"Get some rest, huh? We can all hear what happened to you in the morning." A grimace. "Well. Later in the morning. I'm going to finish the scrolls I started. G'night."

Vincent thought it a very strange experience to be competently ordered around by someone forty odd years his junior. However, the thought was swiftly banished from his mind as his head dropped back on the pillow and he fell into a deep slumber.

_...Tell..._ The word echoed invitingly in his head. Reeve's amber eyes snapped open and he let out a groan. Whiteness surrounded him, blinding as staring at the sun. He squinted and rolled bravely onto his hands and knees. His throat felt raw and painful. He swallowed gingerly and looked around, rubbing his temple. His head was aching abominably and he was a little dizzy, but other than that, he was altogether not too bad off.

"Okay..." He got to his feet a little unsteadily. What had happened? He didn't recognise this place, and he couldn't remember getting here. He frowned. Ayuki. That was it. Professor Ayuki had come to see him just as he was finishing up. She'd... done something, summoned some sort of magical blizzard. Or something. But he hadn't seen any materia. He frowned, worry and a touch of panic beginning to set in. His Turks... Rude, Reno and Elena were all in Wutai with Yuffie and the rest of AVALANCHE. He could call them with his PHS... he patted his jacket pockets a little frantically. Nope, whoever was holding him here had taken everything: his pager, the PHS, his gun, his wallet and the little set of screwdrivers he always carried around with him. He looked at his wrist. Even his _watch_.

Reeve frowned. He had really liked that watch. The PHS was a memento from his AVALANCHE days, as was the pager that had once been set to Cait Sith. His beautiful little screwdriver set. He didn't much like carrying a gun around, but that had been a gift from Elena when he had become President. _"Just in case."_ And now here he was in a potentially dangerous situation without it.

Reeve ran a hand through his hair worriedly and looked around again. Everything was bright white. It made it quite hard to see the dimensions of the room clearly, but it was quite small, like a gaol cell. He could see the outline of a door, but only vaguely - it was white, too. He stepped towards it, reaching out to search for a handle or latch, but it slid aside the moment he touched it with his fingertips. Reeve jumped, then cautiously stuck his head out to take a look. A long white corridor stretched on either side of him, slightly curved so that he couldn't see the whole thing and identical to all appearances. Reeve stared for a moment.

"Uh..." Reeve put his hands in his pockets and stepped out of the cell. The door slid shut behind him. Reeve shivered - even in his suit, this place was cold. Trying to look on the bright side (He wasn't handcuffed or anything, now, was he?) he started off down the corridor to the left. "Left is right and right is wrong, right?" He muttered brightly to himself as he walked. Surely he'd run into whoever had brought him here soon enough, and then he could find out what on earth was going on.

Yuffie jerked awake with a start as a shrill shriek rent the still morning air. Frantic, garbled Wutaian made her shoot to her feet, discarding the top layer of kimonos as she ran - someone was in trouble. Cloud staggered out into the hall behind her, groggily wiping his eyes as Tifa peered out behind him. Yuffie pelted down the hall, realised the racket was coming from the room beside her, and slammed _through_ the shoji wall, snapping into a defensive pose as she landed.

She nearly fell over at the sight of an older serving woman shrieking insults at a bewildered and dishevelled Vincent Valentine, who was determinedly struggling to get a word in edgewise. Upon seeing her mistress, the maid started gabbling at Yuffie.

"Myto Yuffie, fru ec drec syh eh ouin pat? Fryd yna oui faynehk! E femm lid res du crnatc ev ra ryc tynat myo y ryht uh y tyikrdan uv dra Shinobi!"

Yuffie collapsed to the floor, laughing hysterically at the mere thought of the straight-laced Vincent taking advantage of anyone. Cloud burst in through her hole in the wall and stared.

"...Vincent?" he asked, surprised. Yuffie pounded the floor into its component atoms, still cackling. When she finally regained her feet, the old woman was advancing menacingly on Vincent, who was trying to get his Wutaian straight. Yuffie grabbed her arm, still trying to stifle giggles.

"Y susahd, y susahd! Ra cmabd drana palyica E cbahd ymm hekrd naytehk, Upyy-lryh! Drana fyc hud y viduh vun res frah ra ynnejat mycd hekrd, cu E kyja res so pat. Bmayca lyms tufh." She explained in swift, fluent Wutaian. Cloud shook his head at the apparent gobbledegook and moved to greet Vincent.

"Hey, good to see you again, man." He said, scratching his head. "When'd you get here?"

"...Early this morning. Yuffie found me and gave me her bed because she was reading..." Vincent replied. "I did not expect such an awakening." As the glowering servant moved away, he added quickly, "E ys cunno du ryja cdyndmat oui!" Cloud gave him an odd look as the woman dismissed him crankily.

"That Wutaian?" He asked. Vincent nodded. Yuffie approached, having been further scolded in her inappropriate and provocative appearance without her outer kimono.

"Ois... crazy old woman." She sighed. "Sorry about that, everyone." Tifa yawned.

"No problem, Yuffie. Sure beats my alarm clock." She stretched. "So, uh... who needs coffee?"

A/N: Just so everyone knows... I am using Al Bhed for Wutaian. You can find Al Bhed-English dictionaries pretty much all over the web, but I use the one at because it's pretty and Javascriptish. The English is as follows:

Okay... when Yuffie finds Vincent she says, "Who goes there?"

And then he says, "...I am looking for Lady Kisaragi and AVALANCHE."

The old woman says, "Lady Yuffie, who is this man in your bed? What are you wearing! I will cut him to shreds if he has dared lay a hand on a daughter of the Shinobi!"

Yuffie calms her by saying, "A moment, a moment! He slept there because I spent all night reading, Obaa-chan! There was not a futon for him when he arrived last night, so I gave him my bed. Please calm down."

Then Vincent quickly apologises with, "I am sorry to have startled you."

Thanks go to my reviewers. You guys rock! But I seriously couldn't access my damn profile for about two days. Curses. - -;;


	3. 3, 2, 1, Let's Mosey!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from FFVII, only the ones you haven't seen before. Namely, Lana, Feather and Dr Ayuki so far.

A/N: Song of the chapter is "Tank!" from the anime _Cowboy Bebop_. Yes, I do realise that it's probably not humanly possible to consume three bottles of tequila and live, but this is fanfic and this is Reno. Deal.

Chapter Three: 3, 2, 1 – Let's Mosey!

Cloud waved a hand. "Okay, settle down. Let's go through what the Turks told us again-"

"We been through that sh- hoohah a hundred times, Spike!" Barret burst out, correcting his language at a stern look from the seven-year-old perched on his knee. Elmyra hid a smile as she moved around them, collecting dishes and refilling glasses as though this were nothing more than a nice visit. But this particular visit had not been very nice at all.

Barret had arrived home last night. Marlene had been so happy to see him again. Elmyra smiled at the memory. But Barret had brought bad news: Cid had gone to collect AVALANCHE from Wutai because Reeve had been kidnapped as well as Yuffie's father. He had to find them with AVALANCHE. He was sorry, she knew, but she also knew that he had all the tenacity of a bulldog. He would bring back both missing men or die trying.

She sighed as she heard their voices raised again in dispute from her little kitchen. She started washing the dishes methodically. It had been just the same with Aeris.

"I think we should keep looking for Godo with the clues we got from Wutai." She heard Yuffie say. There was a rumble of angry disapproval. "No, no, you guys, hear me out! Two leaders don't disappear within a week of each other for different reasons! There's gotta be a connection. And Shinra can handle-"

"Can it, brat, you just want to find the bastard who broke you #$ing Leviathan. I think we should-"  
"_I want to find my DAD, you stupid old smokestack!_"

"Stop yelling."

The table fell silent immediately at Vincent's terse command. It was a shock to hear the normally quiet man speak so loudly. Cloud cleared his throat loudly into the silence.

"Yuffie, I think you're right – Shinra probably could handle this on their own. But we don't know who else in Shinra might have worked with Ayuki to get Reeve out of the way. And just _before_ we make any decisions," He raised his voice slightly to counteract voices of protest. "I think we should hear what happened to Vincent. Vincent?"

The scarlet-cloaked gunman did not move from his position by the window, nor did he break his watch on the path from Sector Eight. "I travelled to the North Crater because I felt I was called to do so. I do not know who or what by. I left Obsydia at the base of the crater. When I reached the centre of the crater, I saw a strange sort of crystallisation in the middle, illuminated by the glow of the Lifestream. I was then… filled with an impulse to leave." He said evenly.

"What're you hidin', Vince?" Barret's voice was flat, tired. Vincent's head snapped towards him, meeting the other man's eyes calmly.

"I withhold no information that I believe to be important to you, merely things I would rather keep personal." The black man looked away from his intense gaze and muttered something that sounded like an apology. Marlene hugged him.

"Don't be sad, Papa."

Elmyra picked up a tray of coffee and mugs and hurried into the room. "Marlene, it's time for bed. Why don't you all sleep on this, hmm? Or you can make a decision now and meet up with those Turks tomorrow to see what they're doing. You can cover more ground if you work that way." She set down her coffee tray. "Come on Marlene, honey." Elmyra picked up the protesting seven-year-old and swept her around to the stairs. "Say goodnight to Daddy."

Marlene said a sulky goodnight. Halfway up the stairs, Tifa made the mistake of waving to the little girl and was immediately begged to, "Read me a story Auntie Tifa!"

Tifa covered her eyes with one hand and leaned back in her chair, a grin on her face. "All right Marlene, I'll be up in a minute, okay?" Marlene cheered and ran up the stairs to get ready for bed. Tifa's face became serious. "Well, let's make a decision, Cloud. I have a bedtime story to read." Cloud smiled wearily.

"All right then." He said. "What do we want to do?"

Cid raised his coffee cup. "Look, much as I want to help the brat, I don't know what else we can do from what we got in Wutai. So I wanna go find that damn moogle, see if it knows where Reeve is." Cloud nodded. He could see how Cait could be useful.

"Okay then. Anyone else?"

Vincent raised his human hand. "I cannot help but feel that the crystallisation I saw in the crater was connected somehow. It may have been materia. If so, I would like another look at it."

"Hey brat, you never told us you'd swapped bodies with vampire boy. Ain't that your line?" Barret joked. Yuffie glared stonily at him. There was a moment of tense silence before Vincent took it upon himself to defuse the situation.

"Grossness." He said, quite calmly and without any change in tone. The table stared in silence for several seconds, then burst into howls of laughter. When he recovered, Cloud took charge again.

"Okay. Red, Barret, why don't you both go with Cid to find Cait Sith? Red can help find him in the Shinra store rooms." They nodded. "Yuffie, I think you should go with Vincent. Tifa, how about you as well?"

"Sure thing." Tifa stood and ran up the stairs to keep her promise to Marlene. Cid grinned.

"And how about you, oh fearless #$ing leader?"

Cloud smiled grimly, the hilarity of Vincent's comment forgotten. "I don't completely trust the Turks to tell us what's up. I'll be tagging along with them, if they'll allow it. If not, I'll head to the crater as well." He stood wearily and downed his now cold coffee. "All right, let's get some rest. We'll mosey in the morning."

Barret groaned. It had started again.

Reeve, despite his relentless optimism, was beginning to hate the colour white. So bright and alienly clean, it had begun to wear on his nerves after about two hours of wandering. He had found no one. So he began to run, unevenly and with all the fitness and coordination of a pregnant moose. There were reasons Reeve was a tech junkie, after all. It was after a further mile of this staggering monotony that he saw a difference in colour that made him stumble and slow down in surprise.

Ahead, a girl was slumped against one nondescript wall of the corridor. Her thin legs were outstretched so that her toes grazed the opposite wall. He slowed his pace almost against his will. He couldn't just step over her, as though she were a piece of gum stuck to the walkway.

Her hair was a dark brown, interlaced with a deep, dark blue. It was like to the colour of his suit. Her eyes were downcast, aimed at her lap, where her long, pale fingers twirled something through themselves in an endless circle. A painted black tear ran from her lower eyelid to decorate the pale curve of her cheek. Reeve stopped short, panting slightly. She didn't even look up. "Hello?" He asked her. A small smile appeared on her face, but she didn't so much as glance his way. Her gaze was focussed on the thing in her fingertips.

"Is that a question?" She replied, so softly he barely caught it. Her voice was a melodic whisper through jaggedly tattooed lips. Reeve was mesmerised.

"I..." He stared at her. "My name is Reeve." He introduced himself on impulse. Slowly her eyes rose to his face, or so it seemed. Reeve caught his breath at the palest tracery of green in her eyes. "Who... who are you?" He asked her.

"Me? Oh, I'm no one. Just a clown." A watery smile graced her face for an instant, and then flickered away again, like a ripple in a pond that for a brief moment showed a clear reflection. "...Just a clown" She repeated dazedly, staring off some yards behind him.

Reeve watched her uncertainly for a few moments. Then, deciding he had nothing left to lose, he crouched beside her. "Do you know the way out of here?"

The clown laughed, but it was a harsh, sad sound, like breaking glass. "Out? I should, you know. I've tried hard enough. There should be a way out." She said this in a vehement tone, but her expression was still lost. Reeve's sensitive, concerned side wanted him to help her. He didn't think the rest of him could spare the time from helping himself.

"So you don't know a way out?" He ventured. The clown smiled.

"There are no ways out of here..." Her head lolled to the side as she held up what she had been fiddling with. It was a plain white feather, flawless. Reeve stared at it, transfixed, as she continued. "There are no ways out for those without wings, for those without gills... there are only ways in."

Reeve's attention was drawn back to her face from the feather. "What? What do you mean?"

She let out a sigh that was less than the tiniest gust of wind. "You came to this place from the air, but you were not awake to see how They brought you."

Reeve remembered. He had awoken in blackness. He had been sore all over, and afraid he had been blinded. When he tried to test the limits of his prison, he could not find walls. He had stumbled and fallen, though there was no shift in the level of the ground he walked upon. He had passed out. "No." He agreed. Slowly, he sat down opposite her. His calves ached from squatting, and he was relieved at the absence of the pain stretching them brought. When she didn't seem wont to continue, he prodded her. "How did they bring me?"

"From the skies you came. The winds whispered of you, but their frail arms could not support you..." Her eyes were closed, the feather flickering back and forth before her face like a pendulum. "You fell from the great chimney." She dropped the feather and it plummeted, tip down, to strike the floor. "And then the soulless ones took you to your Dark Place and made you scream. You resisted. Like I did." She smiled at him again, and this time there was a curious pride in that smile. "They could not bend you to their will, and now you wander the corridors like me... you have no cell because here there is no need of them. There is no way out."

Reeve's heart sank. She sounded so certain. He sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair. _I suppose there really is no way out, if they let their captives roam so freely._ "Uh… hey, what's your name?"

Her dazed eyes took on hurt and Reeve immediately felt guilty. "I… I don't remember. I think _he_ knew, before They took him away." Her voice held loneliness Reeve had only heard from Vincent Valentine. "He said… he used to say that he thought I had been a clown."

"Why… uh, why did he think that?" Reeve asked, not wanting to seem rude, but curious. She smiled shyly at him.

"I can juggle." She admitted. "And he said he saw a white Chocobo in a circus once." She held up the feather for his inspection. Reeve smiled indulgently.

"And what did _he_ call you?"

"…He called me Baby Girl." She whispered. Reeve nodded, his heart going out to the lonely girl. But she snapped her feather back to touch his cheek gently. "But you mustn't call me that. You have to find your own name for me, just like he did. If you need one." She stood up gracefully and began to walk away.

Reeve followed her, surprised. "Where are you going?"

The clown didn't turn around. "It will be dark soon. And we mustn't sleep in the corridors." Reeve felt a twinge of fear that went beyond all reason. Its chill was deeper than the cold of the complex. No. They mustn't sleep in the corridors. He hurried after the clown, who surely must be freezing. God, it was cold.

Lana Meltzer had never liked the Goblin's Bar. In the days of sectors and slums, it had been just another seedy refuge from the cold winds in the street. After Meteor had hit, after everything had been rebuilt, they had become one of the most respected and most popular bars in this area of Midgar. Lana took a mouthful of her beer and tuned in to the Turks' conversation again.

"I'd like to think this was just another attempt to chisel Shinra, but we've had no demands, and someone in Ayuki's position wouldn't exactly be hard-up for cash." Reno said, fiddling with a cheap paper coaster.

"It would have been pretty easy to hack what she wanted from that level, anyway, so why bother with assaulting Reeve?" Elena added, stretching idly.

"Exactly." Reno agreed with a nod. "That narrows it down to not liking Reeve or wanting something Reeve has that the rest of the world doesn't."  
"It's more likely to be the latter." Lana interrupted. The Turks stared at her and she sighed. "Look, when Rufus was in power, he wanted to make sure that no one like the former president got into power ever again. So he changed the policy on election – now all of Shinra, not just the execs, have to elect the new president, even the SOLDIERs, right? Not only that, but Domino turned over his duties as Mayor to Reeve, so all of _Midgar_ had to elect him. The vote was pretty much unanimous after Meteor and Reeve's efforts as Cait Sith."

Reno leaned forward over his beer. "Now, how would you know what Rufus wanted to do?" He asked suspiciously. There was a very pregnant pause. Lana leaned forward, eyes burning fiercely.

"I know because he told me, Turk. You never knew because he didn't want you to. He didn't want me in danger. When he died, I was the one to receive his assets."

"We never cracked that file." Elena said in wonder. "We could never… oh wow." She trailed off and decided to shut up.

Lana's jaw was clenched, daring them to condemn her. "I put it all back into Midgar, like he wanted. I'm not some money-hungry whore like Scarlet." She said defensively. They could all hear the wobble in her voice. Rude cleared his throat uneasily, breaking the silence.

"I think we can narrow it down to wanting something Reeve has, then." He said, putting them back on topic.

"What does he have? A shitty apartment, an overly large collection of junk and a giant stuffed moogle." Reno commented, suddenly surly. Lana shook her head, banishing thoughts of Rufus along with tears.

"You didn't see his computer, but I did. The whole hard drive was gone. I bet if we checked the records on magnetic tape, a lot of those will be gone as well."

Elena chugged the rest of her beer and winced. "I'll go check on that. Where else would… whatever information be kept?"  
"I don't know. See if you can figure out what's missing from the magnetics and we'll go from there. But 'Lena… if you're checking the computer systems, do it from a safe place. We don't know who we can trust within Shinra." Reno ordered. The blonde nodded, stood and stumbled. She giggled as the alcohol hit her. Rude sighed and abandoned his beer.

"I'll take her back to her place…" He muttered. Elena turned around to glare at him and waggle a disapproving finger.

"It's not good to drink and drive, Rude!" She scolded. Rude grabbed her elbow and steered her toward the door.

"Elena, I'm three times your size, and I had half the beer you did in twice the time. _I'm_ not drunk."

Lana sighed and got up. "Well, now I'm just damn depressed. You want somethin'?"

Reno nodded absently, having utterly destroyed the paper coaster. "Yeah… whatever you're having, only twice as hard."

"Tequila."

"Sounds good."

Reno awoke to the loud rattling of dishes and let out a quiet moan. He must have fallen asleep in the bar again… the people of Midgar no longer turfed people out into the streets when they closed. Meteor's strike had given them a new sense of charity, so they left them where they were. Reno felt, quite frankly, like shit. He rolled over weakly and discovered that the presumed bar owner had even given him a pillow. It smelled pleasantly of lavender. He jerked upright at feet near him and realised with a shock, _Whoa, I'm actually in a bed_. This did not bode well for getting out of wherever he was unscathed. _Shit_.

This wasn't his apartment, and it certainly wasn't a bar. Too classy, for one thing, and far too clean. He blinked blearily at a tall figure with pink hair standing in the doorway. "Meltzer?" _Shit._ This definitely did not bode well.

"Drink that." She set a cup down far too loudly on the bedside table. Reno winced. _Well, it's a good thing she's being callous, right? Means that I didn't lay her or anything…_ "I didn't know where you lived, so I brought you back here. Drink it."

Reno obediently picked up the mug, breathing a small sigh of relief at the brief explanation. He took a mouthful, which he very nearly spat back out. "Ugh. Couldn't you have sugared it?" He took another brave gulp, swallowed and gagged. Lana shrugged.

"Get your stuff together. We're gonne have to meet Rude and Elena and talk with AVALANCHE." She was digging through a wardrobe.

"Whoa, whoa – we? What, did I _propose_ on half a bottle of tequila?" Reno protested loudly. Too loudly. He winced at the reverbrations in his own skull.

"No, you hit on me badly at the end of your second and fell asleep after your third." Lana said calmly. She had clipped a leather holster onto her back and shoulders, and slid a nunchaku into it expertly. "I'm coming along. I quite like my job, and I'd like my President back so that I continue to have this job."  
"Who the hell said you could-" Reno began in indignant protest. He stopped when Lana slung several bandoliers over her shoulders and picked up an exceptionally dangerous-looking rifle. She dipped briefly to pick up a backpack.

"Shall we?" She inquired innocently. Reno closed his eyes, steeled himself, and downed the rest of his so-called coffee.

"After you."

Reeve awoke to the absence of warmth down his left side. He blinked blearily at the hated bright white and shivered. Something waved above his face, something that was also white. "Feather." He identified it dully.

"Good morning." The clown spoke softly, smiling down at him. Her pale eyes still sent chill electricity down his spine. She fluttered her feather over his eyelids as he blinked in surprise. "Feather." She added with a soft laugh. Her reticence had been overcome by the apparent joy of having a companion. "Feather, Reeve."

"That's right." Reeve agreed tiredly. He sat up and rubbed his arms briskly. It was ridiculously cold here. He could barely feel the hand that had not been near the clown. He frowned. It was equally ridiculous to go on calling her 'the clown'. He stood up.

"What are we going to do now?" He asked her. She shrugged.

"Whatever you like, I suppose. No one stops us, unless we interfere." She murmured, gazing thoughtfully at her feather.

Reeve, too, was briefly captivated by the quill. _Feather._ He was struck by a sudden thought, and then crippled by the wondering of how to phrase such a request. Would she think that he was stupid if he asked? There was nothing for it – he thought he must at some point.

"Would you mind awfully… would you be offended, I mean, if I named you Feather?" He asked.

The clown considered, her pale eyes on his. "Feather?" He glanced away, feeling more wretchedly embarrassed than he remembered being in his life. Finally she smiled. "Feather. I… like it. I will be Feather for you."

Reeve smiled in strange relief. "Good."


	4. Stained Glass Roses

Disclaimer: Don't own anybody, 'cept for Lana, Feather and most of the bad guys. Pretty much all of the bad guys, in fact.

A/N: I'd just like to quickly thank Wyrren Sarrasri for putting up with my blabbering in random notes, and for letting me talk to her in order to straighten this plot out in my own mind. It helps. So, this chapter we have Reno, Rude, Elena, Lana and Cloud exploring the Shinra mansion and the changes therein. Enjoy.

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Faith and Feather

Chapter Four: Stained Glass Roses

Cloud did a double take when he saw the Shinra mansion. It practically shone in the dreary mountain village he remembered from his childhood. The blue slate tiles of the roof had been stripped of their lichen sheathings, the wooden cornices newly varnished or replaced entirely. The whole place had been repainted and restored to its original glory. He backtracked, jogging back down the incline to grab a local by the elbow, confused. He was certain Vincent wouldn't have done all this for himself. "Excuse me, but who did up the mansion?"

The woman cocked her head at him. She was perhaps twenty-five, with coppery hair loose around her shoulders and warm brown eyes. "You can't have been here for some time, sir. The whole village put together to restore the mansion for Mr Valentine. You know, one of the members of AVALANCHE. It was after Meteor." She told him with a smile. "He likes his privacy, so we do try to leave him to his peace. He left last week."  
"You know Vincent?" Cloud asked incredulously. The woman nodded, then eyed him curiously.

"Do _you_ know him, sir, or just from the news?" She paused, then her mouth dropped open. "Wait a minute, you're _him_, aren't you? The blond one, umm... Cloud Strife, right?"

Cloud scratched his head. "Well... yes. Vincent never said that the mansion had been done up."

"Well, shame on you for not visiting sooner." The woman said smartly. Cloud bridled at that.

"Well, he is a private kind of guy." He said neutrally. "But we came with his permission, so we'll just be going to the mansion now. Thankyou for your help."

"Not a problem, Mr Strife. Your friends over there are waiting for you." She turned and walked away, burnished curls loose over her shoulders. They near glowed in the afternoon light. Cloud felt a pang of loneliness looking after her. Despite all the time that had passed, he still missed Aeris keenly. He sighed and turned back to 'his friends', shaking his head slightly.

The Turks, despite being surprised at the restored mansion, were still looking decidedly unfriendly at his tagging along. In fact, they looked as though they'd rather investigate this naked and painted purple. The only one looking even remotely open was the SOLDIER, Lana, and she was holding a large rifle as lovingly as though it were her child. Cloud regretted his decision to send Tifa to the North Crater with Vincent and Yuffie. He was beginning to wish that Reno had refused to let him come along.

The red-headed Turk was watching him coldly. "Finished your chat, Strife?"

Cloud shrugged, not even bothering to look apologetic. "Just wanted to know who had done up the mansion. I didn't think Vincent would have."

Aquamarine ice regarded him from several feet away. Cloud tried not to let the obvious hostility ruffle him, but it was hard. Eyes like that usually ended up shooting at him. "Listen, Strife, you may be the boss of AVALANCHE, but right now you're a Turk." Reno cringed. "As much as I hate to say that. That means you follow my direction. Got it?"

Cloud scowled before he could help himself, but bit his tongue to stifle a retort. _Come on. You let yourself in for this. Now you have to deal with it._ Stiffly, he nodded. "Got it, Reno." The Turk glared at him for a moment, then turned and pushed open the gate to the mansion. Elena and Rude followed him, a pace behind on either side. They were used to this job. Elena tossed him a dirty look over her shoulder, as though in warning. Cloud resisted a sudden childish impulse to poke out his tongue.

"He's just tryin' to make sure you don't go get yourself killed." Cloud jumped. He had nearly forgotten the tall SOLDIER. Lana set her rifle calmly on her shoulder. "They're a close group and they all trust each other. Rude and Elena don't really have a problem with you. Reno doesn't like you much. But he does respect you."

Cloud stared at her. Had she even _seen_ the way they interacted? She started to walk away after the Turks, and Cloud followed her, puzzled. Elena was waiting for them at the door. Instead of the cold irritation he had last seen on her face, she looked amused.

"Hey, Cloud. Reno says to take us to the basement." Her lips twitched. "Does Vincent _live_ in this place?" A grin broke out. Cloud stepped inside and had to agree with her. The metamorphosis had not only been exterior... the inside of the mansion was more bright and clean than it had probably been on the day of its completion. White walls, beautifully varnished floors, an expensive Nibelian rug. There was a mantel made of Nibelian marble, with an immense framed print above it. Cloud looked at it carefully. He shivered.

Rude was watching it as well. "Turner's 'Death on a Pale Horse'," he commented. "How fitting." Cloud shrugged and walked up the stairs to where Reno stood, looking at the stained glass windows. Roses and black thorns twined around the edges of a clearing, where a young angel stood in robes of pale gold. Her hair fell to her waist, Her face and eyes were frozen in a smile. Nevertheless, Reno was repulsed. He shuddered. Everything in this place was beautiful, but it still retained a chill, a horror. He never wanted to know exactly what had happened in this place. He never wanted to know all of what Hojo had done here. He had heard far too much already. And yet here he was, about to descend into where all of the despicable man's records of his loathsome experiments lay. Reno shook his head derisively. _Man, sometimes I wonder about you._ He turned to look at Strife, who seemed similarly spellbound by the windows. He cleared his throat. "So. The basement?"

Cloud stirred himself and appeared to take in Reno's words. He nodded once and walked past Reno, glancing back over his shoulder at the stained glass. "It's this way… follow me."

Rude trailed after Lana, Elena and Reno, silently marvelling at the mansion. He had been here once before with Tseng, and it was quite a shock to see the previously dilapidated mansion so whole. However, as soon as Cloud pushed aside the newly polished bookcase, stale, musty air rushed out to greet them, along with the scent of decades-old mildew. Lana grimaced. Elena was more vocal.

"Oh, _yuck_!" She whinged. "How come they had to miss _this_ half?" Still, she descended into the basement after Reno and Rude, pausing only to steady herself on the mouldy, rotting stairway. They creaked dangerously beneath her weight, so she leaned against the wall, biting her tongue to stifle a squeak of disgust at the slimy feel of the stone beneath her fingers. With the other half of her mind, she calmly unholstered her handgun, keeping it pointed downward just in case. She wouldn't be surprised if there were still monsters down here, no matter what had been done to the upper sections of the mansion. She wouldn't be surprised if they roomed with Valentine. The man scared her. He wasn't as quiet as Rude, but his silences were far more disturbing. Despite being about a head shorter than Rude, he still managed to _loom_, the unnatural red gleam of his eyes never failing to make her palms sweaty and a chill tingle of fear run down her spine. Maybe it was because she had been on the wrong end of his demonic powers before. She wondered if he had the same effect on his team mates. They reached the bottom of the stairs and Elena sighed softly in relief as she stepped away from that _disgusting_ wall.

"This way." Cloud said quietly, holding the Ultima Weapon out before him in readiness. He gestured to where a different patch of darkness marked a door. He rattled the latch and stepped back carefully, just in case anything decided to barrel its way through. Elena hoped the footsteps were just her imagination. She cocked back the hammer of her weapon, just in case.

It proved to be nothing but paranoia. Cloud groped along the wall for a light switch and found one with a soft exclamation of triumph. The hum of an old generator gave them dim light for a few seconds, and then died. Reno swore. "Outta the way." He followed the faint Mako glow of Cloud's eyes to where the blond man stood by the generator. "Move, Strife." He took out his Nightstick and switched it on. It hummed softly in the darkness. "Everybody stand back." With practised ease, he built the electric charge so that crackles of blue danced around the tip of the rod. His hair stood on end and he grinned fiendishly to himself in the darkness. Casually, he jabbed it at the generator and held the Nightstick to it for a few seconds as sparks flew. The light flickered back on as the generator hummed cheerily back to life. Reno grinned and grounded the rest of the accumulated charge. "All hail. Am I not a legend?"

"Definitely not." Rude and Elena responded automatically. The tall man moved forward through the dust as Reno pouted. "Let's get started."

"Okay, we're looking for anything Hojo did with reference to materia, or that Sigil." Elena reminded them. "We're pretty sure this is where most of his documents are kept."

"The others were stolen from Shinra, right?" Cloud asked. Elena nodded.

"They took computer data as well as written records. Just keep your eye out for the Sigil." She told him helpfully, obviously relishing that she was no longer the rookie at this game. Reno looked around the library with a loud sigh.

"I always _did_ hate reading…"

Several hours later, Cloud was staring at a pile of useless, deteriorating scientific journals and wishing he had just gone to the North Crater with Tifa. There were too many reminders here – far too many memories, not only of Aeris, but of Sephiroth and Zack, and drifting through enhanced protein fluid, breathing through tubes. He shuddered.

__

"X Year, X Month, X Day,

Specimen R has been successfully injected with the first mako dosage. It seems that mako taken from the Summon's fount and refined minimises mutation to a satisfactory level."

Another: "_X Year, X Month, X Day,_

Specimen R's second dose successfully administered. Mutation is very slight, with only some minor crystallisation. Crystallisation may fade with the application of materia."

Cloud frowned. It sounded like some sort of early mako showering, like what happened in SOLDIER. He noticed that this was one of Gast's reports. "I've got something on materia here." He said out loud. "Mentions a 'Specimen R' and mako injections… it's one of Gast's reports, though. Not Hojo's."

Reno walked back along the shelves, read through the report Cloud held and shrugged. "Sounds pretty weird. Doesn't mention that the specimen is human, though. I don't think Gast did that sort of thing. It might be related, though. Put it over there, on the desk."

Cloud did so, resisting the urge to refuse, or just put it somewhere slightly different. He didn't like being ordered around by the Turks. Still, Reno had a point. The father of Aeris wouldn't have experimented on humans. In any case, he was sure that whoever was behind Godo and Reeve's kidnapping would be far more likely to be connected to the twisted Hojo than the reputedly gentle Gast.

Across the dusty lab, Elena yawned. She tucked a blond strand behind her ear and tried to concentrate on her reading. Her gaze travelled instead to her nails. She frowned. _Come on, Elena. Think of Reeve._ This sustained her fervour for several minutes, but then another yawn broke her concentration. Lana, who had been pacing as she read, looked up and smiled at this. Flipping through the rest of the report she had been reading, she tossed it on a large pile they had decided on as Sephiroth-related – most of the information in this small library was, after all. She walked through the gap between the shelves down to where Reno was sitting on a pile of thick science journals.

"Permission to turn in, sir?" She asked. She wished she had brought her jacket down with her – it was cold in this basement. She could nearly see her breath. Reno glanced up at her through wisps of flame, which were struggling to free themselves from his sunglasses.

"You kidding, Meltzer?" His voice was tight, controlled, but she knew worry when she saw it.

"No sir. We'll all work better if we have a break. Faster, and we won't miss things." Lana said firmly. "It doesn't have to be long." Reno looked at her, then to Rude, whose perfect posture was slipping. Elena was trying very hard to be awake, but he knew her too well for that. She was all but falling asleep. Strife, he thought, looked tired, too. He could care less about the spiky haired blond, but the other blond and Rude were his friends, and they needed a break. Lana didn't look so hot, either – He could see the gooseflesh on her dark skin.

"All right, everyone, finish what you're reading. We'll go get somethin' to eat, maybe sleep a while. Strife, you oughta call your people, see if they've found anything yet." Reno ordered. "Let's call it a day."

One by one, they filed out of the creepy old lab and Reno turned the light off. The absence of the generator's whining hum made the darkness worse. He closed the door decisively, shooting a glance at the other door in the cellar. They'd found Valentine in there, apparently. He grimaced. The scary-looking ex Turk was fortunate not to have met his demise on the tip of Cloud's sword. Reno knew he would've put a bullet through Valentine's head, had he risen suddenly from a coffin in the darkness, red eyes aglow, claw dimly visible in the little light let in from the hall cavern. Reno shuddered and jogged up the spiral staircase, eager to put the darkness behind him.

The polite cleanliness of the rest of the mansion was a welcome change from the atmosphere of the basement. It was hard to imagine, in the well-lit, open lounge area, that decades prior there had been horrific experiments carried out in the basement, and a man locked in a coffin for thirty years. Lana made a beeline for the jacket she had discarded earlier. Elena looked at her suit, covered in dust, grime and the gods knew what else, and sighed.

"You think Valentine will mind if I use his shower?" She asked of no one in particular. Cloud shrugged.

"He said we could stay here. Don't think he'll have much in the way of food or spare sheets, though." Although, you never knew with Vincent. He was still bound by ancient laws of hospitality, Cloud had found, so perhaps he _did_ have spare towels and sheets lying around, and good food in the pantry. He picked up a collection of weapons and his pack. "I'm going to find a place to crash. There have to be more beds around, or at least a room with thicker carpets than this." He nodded to Reno, who frowned and nodded back. Cloud walked off in the same direction as Elena, who was in search of a bathroom.

Rude raised an eyebrow at Reno, who shrugged. "He pisses me off." He muttered in response.

"It's because he's a better leader than you are." Lana sighed softly, eyes closed as she held her jacket tight around her. Reno turned around sharply, eyes narrowed.

"What?"

Lana smiled to herself and got to her feet. "I'm going to get some food from the local inn. What do you want?"

Anger turned to bewilderment. "What?"

Lana rolled her eyes. "Right, one tub of what, coming right up. What does Elena want? And Cloud? Rude?" The bald Turk took a couple of steps towards her, indicating that he was coming, too. They walked out of the great double doors. Reno scowled as he heard the gate swing shut, and kicked the nearest piece of furniture.

Elena found her curiosity to be nearly overwhelming as she walked down the halls of the mansion. It wasn't as big as it seemed from the outside, but it was far from small. Beautifully woven Wutaian rugs decorated the otherwise classical Nibelian home. She pushed a door open and gaped at an immense four-poster bed of dark cherry wood. She gulped at a shredded black pillow. _This must be the master bedroom, I guess._ She shut the door quickly, a little afraid. Who knew what monsters lay under Valentine's bed?

Finally she came to a bathroom with a linen closet right beside it. She blinked and giggled at white fluffy towels. She couldn't imagine Vincent Valentine being a white fluffy towel person. Sure enough, the towel on the rack in the bathroom was black.

"Hey, Elena?"

She jumped at Cloud's voice and whirled, holding her towel tightly. "Yeah?"

"You seen a guest room around? Everything's been moved around…" He looked tired. Elena shrugged apologetically.

"Nope. Sorry. I think the master bedroom is back there, though." She offered. Cloud grimaced.

"I'll keep looking. Thanks."

Elena almost laughed as he walked away. He heard her close the door, and the soft sound of running water a moment later. Several rooms later, he stopped to admire another beautiful set of stained glass windows, and was pleased to discover, through a door, a set of several beds – a double and four singles. They didn't look as though they had seen any use, but then, neither did most of the new items he had seen. Cloud looked longingly at the double for a few moments, then wearily decided that he should call the others first. He sighed and sat down on the bed to pull the PHS out of his backpack. _No rest for the wicked…_

A/N: Well, there you have it, folks. Next chapter – Cid, Barret and Red XIII try to find Cait Sith in the Shinra store rooms and receive a very… odd warning, to say the least. Guess who, Jez?

Thanks to my reviewers. You're really helping me out as far as churning this fic goes. At this rate, it'll be done in a matter of months:) Particularly, thanks to LunaNel, whose sudden reviewing of just about EVERYTHING I've written really gave me a hyper happy boost. Go LunaNel!


	5. Toys in the Attic

Disclaimer: Don't own anyone in this chapter except my cadet and C. I. who is jointly owned by Jez, I suppose, since she asked for her creation. :)

A/N: Right, well. Cid gets back from dropping people at the ends of the earth and wanders around looking for a giant pink moogle. (You'd think the damn thing would be a little easier to find.)

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Faith and Feather

Chapter Five: Toys in the Attic

Or _Some Villains Were Just Meant to be Comic Relief_

Cid landed the Highwind carefully on the cramped landing strip of Midgar's Neo-Shinra for the second time in as many days, having dropped Cloud and the Turks at Nibelheim and Tifa, Yuffie and Vincent a couple of miles from the North Crater. He had left Barret and Red XIII here in Midgar to do what they could without him. He was pretty sure that finding Cait Sith wouldn't be too much of a problem, but then, nothing was ever as easy as it seemed. He lit up a cigarette as he tossed the rope ladder over the rail of the Highwind's observation deck.

Cid took a long drag, holding the small cylinder carefully between his lips as he descended onto the tarmac. A cadet in a blue uniform ran to greet him with a hasty salute. "Sir!"

Cid glanced at him. "Don't fin' call me sir." The cadet blinked, blue eyes wide.

"Uh… y-yessir. Mr Wallace says to tell you they haven't had much luck. I'm to take you to him, sir."

Cid glared. "What did I say?"

The cadet gulped, freckled face going pale. "Right, Mr Highwind. Uh, follow me?" He trotted briskly across the tarmac, and Cid followed. The kid was sharp, for all his nervousness, and immediately began a rambling, guided-tour style summary of all that was being done around them and what they had done so far to find Reeve and keep it under wraps that Midgar's beloved mayor was missing. This slowed as they reached the storerooms.

"Mr Wallace and Nanaki are in here, Mr Highwind. You might want this." The cadet grinned nervously as he handed Cid a flashlight. "Yell if you need anything."

Cid tossed the kid a smile as he walked into the dark warehouse, flicking his flashlight on. He swept it around him, illuminating boxed records, old newspapers with headings like "Shinra Mako Magic" and neither of his friends, nor the stuffed moogle and robotic cat duo known as Cait Sith.

"Yo, Barret! Red!" He bellowed into the shadowy room. There was a long pause before he heard a soft four-footed canter and the golden red glow of Red's tail appeared from behind a row of shelves. The large lion-like creature trotted up in front of him.

"Hello Cid. We're over this way. We haven't found him yet." His tail waved back and forth. "He wasn't in the last two that we saw, either."

"So I heard." Cid muttered. "Well, he can't be far, right? I mean, Reeve loved the thing. Pride and joy, and all that. He wouldn't have just thrown it someplace in the corner, right?"

"I do not believe so." Red agreed. "Cait Sith should be somewhere fairly visible, as long as he has not been stolen and disposed of like the rest of Reeve's belongings."

"Yeah. Damn." Cid muttered. He saw Barret's flashlight up ahead. "Hey."

"Hey, old man." Barret replied by way of greeting. He looked and sounded fed up with searching for the robotic cat. "Ain't nothin' over here except floor plans and blueprints."

"The cat should be somewhere nearby. This looks like the engineering section." Cid replied, scanning a few shelves. Red nodded.

"We can't be too far off. There is only one more warehouse to go through, after this one." He said. Apparently this was a good thing.

Barret growled. "Hey cat, didn't Spike say you could help find the damn robot? So, what're you doin'? Can't you smell Cait Sith out or somethin'?"

Red XIII sighed. "I could, if he had been moved recently. Unfortunately, he has probably not been moved in a long time. In any case, the only things I can smell in here are paper, dust, roaches, spiders and Chocobos."

"Chocobos?" Cid queried, amused. "Damn, cat, I think your nose must be on the blink! If you can find a Chocobo in here, I'll buy your kitty kibble for a year."

"I do not eat kitty kibble." Red said with as much dignity as he could muster. "I will follow the Chocobo scent and see where it leads. I would be interested to know, and perhaps it is Cait Sith, rubbed off from the time he spent with us around Chocobos. Though I doubt it will have lasted this long." So saying, he set off.

Cid clapped Barret on the shoulder. "Come on, man, let's follow the cat. Cait ain't gonna be in any of these filing cabinets, that's for damn sure."

Barret nodded. "Doncha think I know that? I jes wanted to know what was where, fer if we needed anythin' later on. You think I'm gonna hunt through four warehouses again, you a damn foo'."

Cid snorted. "Watch who you're callin' a foo'."

They proceeded down many aisles, systematically searching the entire warehouse instead of following Red XIII. When they finally caught up with the young guardian of Cosmo Canyon, he was waiting for them in the back corner. "The Chocobo scent stops here," he said. "It smells very strongly. And I believe I have found Cait Sith, or one of him. But he seems to be broken."

Cid rubbed his hands together and cracked his knuckles with a grin. "Heh heh heh. You just leave that to Cid. Barret, hold the flashlight."

An hour later, Cid was swearing as he singed his fingers trying to repair Cait Sith's circuit board. "Dammit man, hold the fing torch straight!" Barret boredly directed the beam of light at a more convenient angle.

"I think the battery's runnin' low." He said dourly. "You better hurry up, or yer gonna hafta use Red's tail for light."

Red had still not located the source of the Chocobo smell. He sat, gazing up at the shadows on top of a large shipping container. "I keep hearing something moving up there." He commented.

"Prob'ly jes rats." Barret offered. Red shook his head, sending the beads and clips in his shaggy mane to clattering.

"I can't smell any rats…"

"No. You can smell Chocobos." Cid said, clearly stating his thoughts on the matter. He let out a gleeful chuckle and jumped to his feet. "Stand back! Just gotta jump-start him." Barret and Red obediently stood a long way back as Cid took out a lightning materia. "Bolt!"

Sparks and bright light erupted, and they were treated to a high-pitched, cat-like yowl and a burst of spontaneous carnival music. Cait Sith shook his head as his moogle jumped up and down several times, energised. "Whoa! Yikes! What a rush!" He turned around to face them, little gold crown gleaming, and bared his tiny white teeth in a grin. "Hi guys! How come you woke me up? Where's Reeve? Tell your fortune? Huh? Huh?"

Cid shook his head tired. "Not today, cat." He set about explaining their whole sorry situation to the robot as Barret's torch slowly ran dry. He grabbed Cid's off him and continued glancing about them uneasily. Red, too, seemed slightly nervous.

"Wow," said Cait when Cid was finished. "All that, huh? Well, sorry guys, but unless Reeve's got my remote, I can't find him. I could try get a lock-on with my fortune-telling program, but it might end up bein' a wild goose chase."

Barret shrugged. "Anythin's better than nothin'."

"That is correct. Go ahead, Cait." Red told the robot.

"But if it ends up bein' really weird, we'll just stick with what we have." Cid added. He had heard of Cait's fortunes. Cait's ears drooped.

"Aw, Cid. That really hurts, to hear you say that. What's wrong with my fortunes?" Cid grinned disarmingly at the robot, who poked out his little pink tongue with a sound effect like a cheap party horn. Reeve had certainly gone to town on this model. Cait Sith took a few steps into a clear space and the moogle rubbed its paws together. "Okay!" He did a quick fortune-telling dance, which basically involved a lot of arm-swinging and jumping, and turned back to them. "Puh-lease collect your print-out!" He said cheerily.

Barret stepped forward to stare dubiously at the piece of paper that had slid out of a slot on the moogle's stomach. He tore it off and held it up to torch-light. "It says, 'feathers stop snow cones'." Barret gave Cait Sith a very unimpressed look. "Reeve jes makes these up, doesn't he?"

Cait waved his arms frantically. "Hang on, I'll try again! Sometimes it's a bit glitchy at first…" He did another fast fortune-telling dance, nearly toppling a shelf. Red's head snapped around. He could have sworn someone had giggled.

Cid looked at the second print-out. "It's a tarot card image. The king of swords."

Barret groaned. "Okay, let's jes go find Spike…"

"One last time!" Cait decided. This time he did bump into something – the shipping container. There was a very muffled 'oof!' that was covered by the sounds of Cait's fortune printing out. Barret peered at it.

"Wark, wark." He read flatly. Cid slapped his forehead.

"I couldn't have said it better myself!" They all turned to stare at a girl in a skimpy white halter-neck top and a Chocobo-feather skirt. Platinum blond hair that flicked up at the tips went to her shoulders, and they could see her bright, bright blue eyes without the aid of the torch. Several more feathers of all different shades were stuck into her hair like a weird head dress.

Cid spoke for them all when he said, "Who the f are you?"

She held out one hand, palm facing them, her nose in the air. Then she grinned. "I'm the Chocobo-Imbued." She said, as though they really ought to know. Her voice was high-pitched and squeaky. "…but you can call me C.I.!" A huge grin lit her features as she turned back to them. "I'm here to bring a message to you, Cid Highwind, Barret Wallace and Nanaki of AVALANCHE."

"What about me?" Cait Sith whined, jumping up and down on top of his moogle.

C.I. sniffed. "You don't count. You're just a robot, and we have the real you already!"

"The real… you're the one who's holding Reeve?" Barret bellowed. C.I. just waved her finger, and darted out of the way as the man started toward her. She bounced lightly and landed atop a shelf, out of their reach.

"Nuh-uh-uh! You have to play nice, or you don't even get your message!" She chided with a giggle. Barret glowered and levelled his gun-arm at her. He fired a few rounds, but she danced out of the way, perfectly balanced even in her ridiculously high platform shoes. She scowled at him and stuck out her lower lip when he stopped firing.

"Ooh, you've made me angry, now! You won't last long at this rate – you hurt Shiva, too, and she's not very impressed with you, y'know." She put her hands on her hips. "But I guess I still have to give you your message. So, here it is: Stay out of our way! No one works against the power of the gods and lives."

"Is that a threat?" Nanaki asked, voice cold. C.I. smirked at him.

"We knew you'd ask that – here's a little proof of our power." She held up her hands in front of her and made a light pushing motion before blurring out of their sight, high heels clattering over the top of the shelves as she escaped.

The four members of AVALANCHE stared after her and then turned around. Cid yelled in surprise. The entire shipping container and whatever it had held had been squashed flat. There was a heavy imprint in the ground around it, as though something exceptionally large had stood on the shipping container.

"Well ho-ly-shit." Cid commented, looking dumbfound. "What do you guys say we get out of here?"

Barret, Red and Cait Sith nodded. They broke into a run from the door out of the warehouse. "'Wark, wark!' huh?" Barret asked the robotic cat. Cait Sith gulped and laughed nervously.

"Guess so."

The cadet that had shown Cid to the warehouses was wide-eyed when they came out. "I just called for back-up… is everything all right in there, sirs?"

"No." Cid told him. "Sure as hell hope there wasn't anythin' too important in that big shipping container down the back, kid, 'cause if there was, it's pretty #$ed right now. Some woman in a feather suit showed up and did something. Must've been some sort of gravity-based attack, 'cause I sure as hell don't know what else coulda done that."

"A… what?" The freckly kid asked, obviously a little tiny bit surprised. Cid sighed.

"Jes remember that it wasn't us, kid." Barret interrupted with a scowl. "That Chocobo-woman… said she was the Chocobo-Imbued or somethin'…"

Red cleared his throat. "We should get going. We have Cait Sith, now we should-" He was cut off by a loud ringing from Cid's jacket pocket. Cid flipped out the PHS, motioning that they should get a move on.

"Cid, here."

Cloud was lying on his back on the double bed. "Cid. It's me – how are you doing over there?" He heard a wheezy chuckle.

"Spike, you don't know the half of it. We've got the robot, but some girl wearin' a feather costume showed up and flattened a shipping container. Said her name was the Chocobo-Imbued, and that AVALANCHE should stay outta their way, 'cause no one went against the power of the gods and lived. Not that we could really understand her, mind." Cid reported. "I swear to god she talks faster than the brat."

Cloud blinked, processing this new information. "She flattened a shipping container?"

"That's what I said, kid."

"Right." Cloud said, a little nervously. "Well, you'd better be careful, then. Does Cait Sith know where Reeve is?"

"Nope. The most we got out of him was somethin' about feathers and snow cones, and a tarot card. Said 'Wark wark' just before the Choco-Weirdo turned up, though."

Cloud nodded. "Head over here, to Nibelheim. We'll probably be in the basement. I'm gonna call Tifa and see how they're going in the North Crater."

"Sure, kid. Let's hope that Chocobo broad doesn't head your way."

There was a beep as Cid hung up. Cloud let out a long, low whistle. A shipping container? They had better watch out for that woman, whoever she was. And the power of the gods? It didn't sound promising, to say the least. He sighed. Time to get on to Tifa and the others to the North.

A/N: ; Yeah, well. That's really no way to deliver a chilling message of terror and mass destruction, now, is it? Next chapter, we discover just what's lurking in the Northern Crater! (It's a mystery space-creature! Spooooookyyyyy! – Those of you who don't watch Cowboy Bebop won't get that.)

Thankyou to LunaNel again, because you seem to be the only person reading this! lol If you do read, please review! I like feedback, even if you're telling me my story sucks. If you _do_ think it sucks, though, give me some reasons why!


	6. Ghosts of the Past

Disclaimer: Don't own any of the characters of FFVII, but I own this storyline and the original characters that are in this fic. Even down to the wussy cadet in chapter five! He'll come in later, maybe. guards her characters paranoidly

A/N: BEFORE YOU BEGIN! An important thing to consider. I know that what will happen in this chapter is cliche. HOWEVER. This story was meticulously planned - ask Wyrren Sarrasri. I wrote a seven page document on what I absolutely WOULD NOT DO. So I must ask you to PLEASE not discount me as an author when you get to the end of this chapter. Please trust my judgement when I say that it needed to be done. It's an important part of the plot and it IS properly justified. I promise. Okay?

coughs And yes, Wyrren, in case you didn't gather from that rant… Your Man is in this chapter. ;)

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter Six: Ghosts of the Past

Tifa shivered as she urged her Chocobo onward. It was cold on the North Continent, particularly up around the North Crater, where they were headed. She had integrated stockings into her usual outfit, and was also wearing a black jumper over her tank top, with holes for her thumbs in the sleeves. She was glad she had gloves on in this weather, because she was starting to worry that despite her boots and stockings, she couldn't feel her toes.

Yuffie followed behind on Falla, her blue Chocobo, with Vincent trudging along behind her. None of the hire Chocobos, nor any of Cloud and Tifa's small flock, had dared go near him. In this weather, the Chocobos couldn't move much faster than he could, anyway. He jogged up the slope behind Yuffie, glad of the faster pace to warm him. Ruddy eyes scouted ahead as far as he could through the sleet and whirling flakes of snow. Tifa found a small alcove and halted Kirato there, waving to Yuffie and Vincent through the storm.

"We're nearly at the top," She yelled over the wind, though they were only feet away from her. Vincent held his scarlet cloak tight around him as Yuffie, who must have been freezing, held tight to Falla's neck for the added warmth. Falla cooed softly to her mistress and ruffled her feathers uncomfortably.

"We should keep moving. I can see the rim. It isn't far." Vincent said, barely audible over the roar of the wind. He took the lead now, finding the widest ledges for the Chocobos' ascent. Tifa dismounted before long, and Yuffie soon followed, keeping close to her Chocobo in order to keep warm. She could barely feel her fingers, and the cold bit into her skin like a thousand needles with every blast of wind. She would be glad to get out of here, no matter what sort of materia lay in the Crater.

Finally, they moved down the inside of the crater, in the lee of the rim. Yuffie sighed happily and walked practically underneath one of Falla's stubby wings, grateful for the warmth her Chocobo friend offered. "Tell you what, Falla; you're getting a whole bale of greens when we get back to wherever I have a bale of greens to give you. That sound good to you?" Falla warked brightly and made more of an effort to keep her mistress warm.

Vincent pointed into the middle of the Crater, where a greenish glow emanated from a bunch of shiny, crystalline formations. "That is what I thought might be materia."

Yuffie peered forward interestedly. She shook her head dubiously. "I don't think so, Vinnie. I mean, look at it - it's black. You ever heard of black m--" She stopped. "Oh man. Oh man, what if it is?" Tifa grimaced. She didn't want to think about what could happen if the Planet was producing more black materia - they had had enough trouble with a single one. She edged Kirato forward, past Vincent, who had slowed almost to a halt. The green broke into a trot, moving swiftly across the patchily mended surface of the crater. He avoided weaker-looking areas of the crust with a discriminating wark every now and then, but otherwise appeared to be concentrating on the same green glow she was. Yuffie climbed back on Falla and was about to knee her into action when she noticed that Vincent had stopped following Tifa.

"Vincent, what are you doing?" She asked impatiently, wheeling Falla around. It took a valiant effort to keep her teeth from chattering. The ruby-eyed man glanced up at her, but did not answer. "Vincent?" He ignored her and stayed where he was. Yuffie let out a loud huff of annoyance. "Well, whatever. If you're too chicken to come, why don't ya just say so?" She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and Falla broke into a run to catch up with Tifa. Yuffie leaned close to her Chocobo's neck to minimise the freezing wind on her skin, and grinned triumphantly as they passed Tifa and Kirato. She saw Tifa roll her eyes at her antics, and turned around in the saddle to poke out her tongue. Tifa smothered a giggle as Falla stopped short of the black crystals, nearly throwing the cheeky ninja off.

Falla warked loudly and shrilly in question of the air about them, sensing that something was wrong. Yuffie jumped down and unsheathed her Conformer, not bothering to scold her Chocobo - she too could sense something amiss. She couldn't see past the spires of crystal to the centre, so she worked her way to the left, where Tifa had just dismounted Kirato. "Something's wrong here. I want to see the middle."

Tifa nodded and stood on tiptoe, leaning cautiously on one of the spikes of black crystal that rose from the stony ground. She jumped a few times. "I don't think there is a middle. I think it's all this black glass. It's about ten feet... maybe twelve feet across." She jumped again, then sighed and stepped away from it. "I can't see any gap in the black, Yuffie."

Yuffie nodded, frowning, and worked around, the cold almost forgotten as she examined the nearly opaque black crystal. It certainly looked like materia... she flicked it with a nail. Sounded like materia, too. She grimaced. "Whatever you do, don't yell 'Meteor' and mean it right now, okay?" Tifa made a face. Yuffie pointed. "Check around that way, okay? I want to see if there are any gaps into the middle. There has to be a core to this somewhere, or it would have just sprung up all over the crater." Tifa nodded and walked around the perimeter in the opposite direction to Yuffie, checking the strength of the black spires as she went. None of them felt weak enough to be broken off or pushed aside with anything other than Cloud's Ultima weapon. Maybe Sephiroth's Masamune, too. Tifa winced at the thought.

She glanced over her shoulder and her brow crinkled as she saw Vincent standing all alone a hundred yards from where they stood. The wind whipped her hair about behind her, and she saw his cloak get away from his tight grip, a billowing scarlet sail. "Why is he over there all by himself? Is he feeling that 'impulse to leave' right now?" She wondered aloud. She frowned at the glassy surface beneath her gloved hands. What secrets did it hold, to keep Vincent Valentine at bay?

She met Yuffie on the other side. The other girl hadn't found any way into the middle, either. Tifa stood on tiptoe again. "There are chunks that are smooth on top. I'll give you a boost, and you can check the middle, maybe? There has to be a reason for this being here. The Planet wouldn't just grow a whole bunch of the Black Materia for no reason, right?"

"Uh... right." Yuffie said nervously. "Just give me a boost to see where the flat bits are, and I'll get up there myself, all right?" Tifa nodded and knelt down to make a step-up with her hands.

"Hand on my shoulder, and I'll stand up." Tifa warned. "Three, two, one... up we go!" Yuffie analysed the surface of the black crystals carefully.

"Okay, Tifa, that's enough. Put me down." Tifa dropped into a crouch again and Yuffie stood on solid ground for a few minutes, jogging on the spot and stretching. "Don't wanna hurt myself or anything." She paced out ten yards or so and stopped, dropping down into a crouch that looked almost like she was kneeling in prayer. Tifa cocked her head to the side and stood well out of her way, holding Kirato and Falla by their reins. Yuffie stood again, surprising Tifa with a formal bow to either Da Chao or Leviathan, and broke into a sprint directly at the spikes of crystal. Tifa bit her lip as Yuffie demonstrated her Mad Ninja Skillz with a combo of several handsprings that ended with a double somersault in midair... and Yuffie landed directly where she had aimed, in the middle of the field of black crystal. Tifa breathed out a loud sigh of relief at the fact that her young friend had not impaled herself on any of the spires. Yuffie took her shuriken off her back again and held it loosely in her hand as she examined the flawlessly smooth surface of the middle.

"It's clearer over here... especially toward the very centre. Hey! I think I see something!" Yuffie took a few steps toward the middle and got down on her hands and knees to stare down through the crystal. She blinked a few times and let out a dry-mouthed croak. Then, "Holy shit!" She squeaked, and took a flying leap back off the black materia. She grabbed the materia pouch from her belt and immediately began sorting through it, discarding the less advanced orbs she had been trying to Master. At the same time, she started yelling. "Vincent! Vincent, get over here, now! I don't care what kind of chicken you are, get over here!"

Tifa didn't know what her young friend had seen, but she, too, took up the call. "Vincent!" There was a minimal pause as Vincent observed them, then he broke into a run that was too fast to be entirely human. Then again, it could just have been his extremely long legs, Tifa supposed. She turned back to Yuffie, satisfied that Vincent was on his way. She found herself entrusted with a handful of materia.

"Equip these, quick!" Yuffie said, having already done so herself. "It's Sephiroth! Sephiroth is in there! It's fing Sephiroth!"

Tifa's eyes widened and she almost panicked. She flicked materia out of the Premium Heart, shoving them in her own materia pouch and trusting Yuffie's judgement of the materia she had been given. Vincent came to a skidding halt, only very slightly out of breath.

"What is it?" He demanded tersely. His eyes burned with an almost frightening glow, and he seemed to be concentrating fiercely on something. Yuffie shoved more materia into his hands.

"Equip it, equip it!" She danced frantically as she spoke. "Sephiroth is in the middle of all that materia-stuff!" Vincent's eyes widened slightly.

"Not possible..." He breathed, but immediately unholstered the Death Penalty and fit the materia he had been given into their allotted slots. Yuffie grabbed Tifa's hands and made a noise of annoyance as she reordered the materia slightly. Tifa couldn't help but grin - no amount of experience and study would ever bring her up to Yuffie's level of expertise as far as materia went. The girl moved on to her armlet and started speaking rapidly.

"It gets to be dark grey in the middle, and you can see through it to the Lifestream underneath. But in front of the Lifestream is Sephiroth's body, and I don't know if he's dead or alive, but his eyes are open, and he's still bleeding... I could see the blood on his face, and his eyes..."

"Calm down, Yuffie." Tifa said softly. "We beat him once, we can do it again. If he's still alive, that is. He's been... like this... for over a year, I suppose. No one gets stronger by being stuck in crystal for a year. If he's alive in there, he'll be lucky if he can move, let alone pick up the Masamune." A thought struck her. "Is the Masamune there with him?"

Yuffie nodded slightly. "I could see the hilt near his chest. I think it--" She trailed off, mouth agape. "Gah!" She pointed wildly. Tifa and Vincent whirled.

Chestnut hair whipped around an angel's face, unbound from its eternal twist. Heartbreaking mako green eyes smiled at them. Peaches and cream skin showed, for she wore her red jacket no longer, only the innocently pink cotton dress she always had. Nevertheless, her staff was gripped tightly in one hand. Tifa finally unglued her tongue from the roof of her mouth.

"Aeris..."

She smiled at them. It was so good to see them again in person, for all that they were afraid of her right now. And Cloud… soon she could see Cloud again as well. But not before they brought him back… no, not before that. Aeris held out her hands.

"Tifa… Yuffie… Vincent…" She could see that they were spellbound and terrified. "I told Cloud I'd come back."

"You… you're… you're alive?" Tifa asked. "But… how? Why? I mean… are you really Aeris?"

After all they had been through, Aeris understood the disbelieving question. She nodded. "Sort of. I… I want to talk to you all, but I have to say this, first. The Planet gave me new life because She needed me again. Something is very, very wrong on Her surface, and I need you… all of you… to help me save Her."

Yuffie ventured forth, and tentatively reached out to touch first Aeris' hand, then her shoulders. "Aeris…?" She asked, still unsure. Aeris smiled at her.

"It's okay, Yuffie." She said. Yuffie had the feeling she wasn't just referring to here and now. Always… always, it was okay forever. Yuffie hugged her friend.

"Aeris, it is you." Tears trickled down her cheeks and froze there in the bitter cold. Aeris was warm. Aeris was always warm. Tifa ran forward to hug the Cetra too, crying openly.

"Aeris, we missed you!" She said, holding onto Aeris' shoulders. "What do you want us to do?"

Vincent stood back, but Aeris walked towards him. Soothingly, she held his human hand for a moment. The creases in his brow eased momentarily. "I… am glad you have returned." Vincent murmured. Aeris smiled.

"I'm glad I'm back, too. But this is important. Very important. I need you to listen to me, and trust me. I know that what I say will seem… very strange. But please, try to understand that the Planet spoke these words to me… She knows what to do. Okay?" Her burnished copper curls were loose around her shoulders.

Tifa nodded. "We're listening."

Aeris nodded. Her hair seemed to cling to her shoulders like a shawl. "I am going to resurrect Sephiroth."

"What?" Vincent demanded sharply. He made a slicing motion with his claw. "Aeris, are you certain that is wise?"

Aeris smiled. "I told you it would be weird. The Planet… the Planet knows things, Vincent, and I can't understand all of them while I'm a part of this world. I can't remember everything She told me while I was of the Lifestream. But I do know that he is very important. He's a turning point. The Planet is out of balance, but he can help bring it back, just as you can. And given the threat I feel we're up against, I think we're going to need all the help we can get."

Vincent nodded slowly and subsided. Aeris looked down at her hands.

"Now… the draining of the Lifestream from the Planet started a long time ago. The use of mako energy to produce electricity has only been going on for half a century, but already the Planet's energy is greatly diminished. You all know that already." She took a breath, then giggled as though she weren't used to it. Yuffie supposed she wasn't. "But the mako reactors weren't the only thing draining the Planet's energy. On top of the lifeblood of the Planet being sapped away, her children have been taken from her, too; the elemental gods and goddesses held within the Summon materia."

Yuffie blinked. "Whaaat? Did the Shinra do that?"

Aeris smiled sadly. "The Planet doesn't know who. I only remember that the original Master orbs were the ones that contained the true powers, and that someone… somebody, somehow, took their essence and their power entirely away from the Planet."

Tifa frowned. "But… how could they do that? Materia orbs have a life span, the same as humans and animals do."

"I don't know how it was done, or even who it was done to… except one." Aeris pointed to the shards of black crystal behind her. "I know that he was imbued with a dark, poisonous power by Professor Hojo, and that she – Jenova, as we called her – was a part of the Planet – the original Planet of the Cetra. She was one of my Planet's children."

Silence. The only sound was the icy howl of the wind through the crater. Aeris hung her head. "I know it sounds crazy. I know it's hard to believe. But… while you are all thinking about this… may I please have your Life materia?"

Yuffie bounced impatiently and shook her head. "Aeris, the Life materia can't bring someone back to life who's been dead that long. It doesn't even properly revive people! It just… y'know, restarts the body a bit. Gets it going enough to go on living, if it receives the right treatment."

Aeris smiled. "But Yuffie, it can bring people back to life, if the wielder is a Cetra. And… he is not truly dead, either. You felt it when you came here days ago, Vincent." She turned to the cloaked gunman, hands clasped to her chest. "You felt his wraith calling you, and so did Chaos, but only Chaos realised the danger the powerful wraith would be to you both."

Vincent blinked and looked away. He had not wanted to elaborate on that particular section of his journey to the North Crater. Particularly not when the demon's hackles were already up at being so very close to… to the wraith that had called them both here. Now he saw.

"Very well." Vincent muttered. It was as much permission from him as Aeris was going to get. Yuffie reluctantly handed over her Life materia.

"If Cloud gets mad at this, it is so all your fault." She muttered.

Aeris nodded, a smile on her face. "Yes." She paused thoughtfully. "Before I cast… I must ask you: please don't mention the past. I'm… I'm not sure he will remember all of his life, after being a wraith so long, and after being possessed by Jenova for so long before that." Tifa, Yuffie and Vincent all nodded reluctantly. Aeris turned from them with another relieved smile, and tried to concentrate on her casting. She could understand their fear – she was afraid to do this, herself. But she trusted the Planet, and her mother, and all the grandmothers she had heard while she slept in the lake in the Ancient City, so she focussed, her magic causing her staff to hover before her. "Life2!"

The black glass around the centre of the crater lifted away and dissolved. Bright, colourful sparks glittered around Sephiroth's body, chasing away the last of the clinging crystallisation. He inhaled with a gasp, coughed wetly, and spat out blood that nearly glowed with the mako he had been exposed to. The Great Sephiroth coughed weakly once, twice, and rolled over on his side to dry-retch into the cold ground of the north crater. The Masamune clattered onto the ground beside him. Aeris took a few nervous steps forward, then steeled herself and ran towards him. He was shivering convulsively, his slim build and long limbs gone thin with starvation. Tifa could count the man's ribs.

And surely she could call him only a man, now. Not a monster, not a god, but a man, freezing along with the rest of them in the barren, icy wasteland of the North Crater. Nervously, she moved forward. "Oh, Vincent… your cloak, give him your cloak. He'll die… again…"

While Chaos' opinion on that subject was obviously in favour of letting this happen, Vincent unbuckled the cloak and moved forward with swift steps to spread the cloak impersonally over Sephiroth's thin, wasted shoulders. Even through his glove, he could feel that Sephiroth's skin was as cold as ice.

Aeris looked up at Vincent, gratitude in her eyes. "We need to get him to some shelter. I know it's a lot to ask when we're in the middle of nowhere, but we have to get him somewhere warm."

Vincent looked to Tifa, who was considering. "We should head to Nibelheim… Cloud has to see this. He has to know… um. We could try the cave we found yesterday first, though."

Aeris hovered worriedly above her silver-haired murderer for a moment, then looked back at Tifa. "How far is it? I know how uncomfortable you must be with this, but the Planet thinks he's important to this… whatever 'this' is."

Tifa, upon seeing the uneasiness of her friend, immediately smiled reassuringly. "It isn't far. Come on, I'll help you with him. Vincent, lead the way – you can see better than us. Yuffie, you lead the Chocobos. They won't help us here."

Vincent saw to it that Tifa and Aeris weren't carrying a too-heavy load before he started to make his way in the direction of the cave they had seen earlier. Yuffie followed behind Tifa and Aeris with Falla and Kirato. The Chocobos seemed more edgy now than they had been earlier. Yuffie clenched their reins tightly in her fists. She'd bet anything they could still sense the evil in Sephiroth. I mean, they're scared of Vinnie. They'd have to be scared of Sephiroth. Speaking of Vinnie… he seems a lot better now. The pitch-haired man had seemed almost afraid to be in the crater, but now his uncertain step was gone, replaced by long, unfaltering strides. His gaze was no longer blank with inner concentration. She frowned as she followed her friends over the ridge that formed the rim of the crater.

Vincent glanced back over his shoulder in case Tifa and Aeris were having any trouble with Sephiroth. They seemed to be bearing his weight easily between them, which was strange. He had always assumed that despite Sephiroth's slender build, the man would still be of a reasonably heavy weight. Then again, with his current appearance, he shouldn't be surprised that the wasted man appeared to weigh so little. He scanned the area below him and jumped lightly down to land on a ledge. "The cave is this way." He said, just audible over the howling winds. He saw Tifa and Aeris safely down the ledge, and waited until Yuffie had coaxed down the Chocobos before continuing.

It took another twenty minutes of careful climbing before they reached the mouth of the cave. Vincent kindled a fire the moment he was certain that they were the cave's only inhabitants, the cold beginning to affect him now that he was without a cloak. Sephiroth appeared to have passed out again, presumably from exhaustion. Yuffie stationed Falla and Kirato just inside the mouth of the cave, where they would be warm but would also buffer the less resilient humans from the freezing winds. She fed both Chocobos, then darted over to the warmth of the fire. She sank down into a crouch, hugging her knees and shivering.

Aeris arranged Sephiroth close to the fire, careful to keep his long hair away from the flames, before she took a seat herself. Tifa stood uneasily for a few moments, then took a seat beside Aeris, the warmth of the fire too difficult to resist.

Vincent savoured the warmth for a few moments more, then moved to the mouth of the cave to act as sentry. Tifa let out a heavy sigh as he went, looking to Aeris. "What are we going to do with him?"

The Cetra was staring into the fire, and startled at Tifa's words. "I… I guess we wait for him to wake up. After that… I don't know, Tifa. The Planet thought he was necessary. So… I guess you take him back with you to help with finding Yuffie's father and Reeve."

Tifa blinked. "How do you-?"

Aeris smiled. "The Planet lets me watch things. She tells me things that are happening, sometimes. Especially if they're important."

"I guess this is pretty much as important as it gets…" Tifa mused. She jumped as a loud beeping erupted from her belt. The PHS was ringing. Sephiroth's brow creased and he coughed in his sleep. Tifa picked up the PHS hurriedly, not wanting to have to deal with too many things at once. "Hello?"

"Hey, Tifa. How are you doing?"

"Um…" Tifa thought about that one for a few seconds. She couldn't possibly tell him all that had happened over the PHS. "Pretty good, considering." She hedged.

"Considering what? You okay?"

"Uh… yeah, Cloud. I'm fine. We're all fine."

"You sure? You don't sound fine. Anything happened?"

Tifa had to grin at that. Had it ever. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Believe me." She added at his protest. "We're on our way back from the crater, but we might have to drop in to Glacier Village to pick up some new supplies."

"Okay…" Cloud sounded concerned on the other end of the line. Tifa wished he was here so that he could reassure her in person. "You could call Cid and get him to pick you up. They found Cait Sith."

Tifa grimaced at that scenario. "Um, no. We'll just meet you in Nibelheim in a couple of days, okay? I don't think Barret would take this too well. So I'll see you in Nibelheim."

"Tifa, are you sure you shouldn't tell me what's happened?"

Tifa nearly beat her head against the cave wall as she jumped up to get away from the sounds of Sephiroth stirring, and Aeris speaking softly to Yuffie. "Nope. I'm sure. Trust me. I'll see you later, all right?"

"All right. Bye Tifa."

"Bye Cloud."

Tifa clipped the PHS back onto her belt and turned to face the uneasy silence at her back. She blinked a few times, then tried not to let her hatred of the silver-haired swordsman cloud her judgement. She tried not to send him straight back to hell, but it was hard to keep her cool after hating him for so long. Aeris patted the ground beside her reassuringly and gestured that Yuffie should go get Vincent. Sephiroth had opened his eyes.

A/N: Ooooh, spoooookyyyy… Sorry, had to throw that in. ; As I was saying up the top, he is totally necessary, and so is Aeris! He is NOT just there to fulfil the bishounen quotient of an epic fic. Okay? Vinnie, Reno and a couple of my bad guys could have done that by themselves. ;)

Please review and let me know what you think!


	7. Ancient Enmity

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, concepts or places from Final Fantasy VII! I do own the characters you've never heard of before this fic, like Lana, Feather, Dr Ayuki and the Chocobo-Imbued. Mmkoi? Mmkoi.

A/N: Well, I was gonna move on this chapter... but I've decided we need more time to get to know the new improved weedy Sephiroth. :) Besides, I'm having fun with this. So, enjoy. Bwah.

**Faith and Feather  
**Chapter Seven: Ancient Enmity  
  
He stared at them for several seconds, face cold, but a slow fear rising behind his eyes. Who were they? What did they want from him? He had seen them before, he knew it, but he couldn't quite recall... The delicate brow furrowed in consternation. Three women, one of them barely so. Sephiroth heaved himself up, hair falling messily over his shoulders as he clutched the scarlet material of a thick cloak to his naked chest. Despite the fire, he could feel the icy cold of outside biting at his fingertips, his toes inside his leather boots, his ears. He glanced at each of the females, noting with slight surprise the fear on at least two of those faces. The youngest stood slowly, carefully, edging past the fire. It was as though she were afraid to startle him into action. His eyes followed her until she broke into a run away from the fire toward... what? He frowned. He was in a cave... he could hear her cries. They echoed.

"Vincent! Vincent, he's awake!" Slight tremor of fear, or possibly anxiety in that youthful voice. Sephiroth's gaze snapped immediately to the shadows into which the girl had disappeared. Vincent... whatever else he had forgotten, he did remember that name. Someone hated had repeated it over and over, like a mantra... and he knew that 'Vincent' had represented something else to him, too... Something father hated. Something like me.

Sephiroth blinked. Where had the thought come from? He couldn't even... he clenched his jaw as the girl came back into view, freeing herself effortlessly from the inky shadows at her back. She seemed to be worried she had left her friends too long, for she immediately returned to the sides of the other two women. Sephiroth stared at the new arrival, Vincent, with cold curiosity. Ebony hair, tangled and wind-swept, tamed (barely) by a bandanna as red as the cloak that covered Sephiroth's shoulders, and as red as the man's terrifying, icy eyes. Sephiroth experienced a strange doubling of vision, recalling a bestial snarl and an equally red-eyed purple winged horror of the night. He looked away, disturbed, and back to the three women.

The girl was regarding him with open distrust. Her chocolate locks, run through with misplaced blond highlights, hung in disarray to brush her shoulders. Her eyes were a stormy shade of grey that he had previously associated only with the worst of storms. Before her sat a curvy brunette, luxurious hair black tinged bloody in the firelight. Her wine-coloured eyes absorbed the fire's heat, but she was watching him with a coldness that he understood was alien to her face. The third had eyes as green as he knew his own to be, with copper locks to her waist. She could only accurately be described as angelic. Of the three, she was the most familiar, and the most horrifying for a reason he couldn't and didn't want to place. She out of all of them was the only one smiling, albeit a frightened, frozen sort of smile.

Sephiroth retreated a little, back into coldness. "Who are you?" Crisply articulated, no farce of politeness in the tone. He was just this side of afraid, as he knew he had never been, and he knew that they knew it. His only consolation was that they were far more frightened of him.  
The beauty in pink looked to her companions and cleared her throat nervously. She looked to Vincent, then to the curvaceous woman beside her for permission. "We are... this is Vincent, Tifa and Yuffie. I'm Aeris." So many memories attached to those names, if only he could break through the fog to them. He frowned thoughtfully.

"And I am Sephiroth." He wasn't certain. Aeris nodded encouragingly. "You... I know you. How do I know you?"

"We... um..." Aeris bit her lip. "We weren't very good friends to begin with." She let out a highly nervous giggle. "Oh, this is a bad place to start... what do you remember? What do you remember about the Planet?"

Sephiroth gave her the kind of look normal people reserved for those considering genocide. "I know about the Planet. I can't remember any of you very clearly. Particularly you, and you." He gestured to Tifa and Yuffie. The younger girl glared at him haughtily.

"Hey, she told you our names for a reason. There's no excuse for calling me a 'you'." She snapped, then subsided as swiftly as she had spoken, looking as though she were trying to refrain from beating her head against the wall. Tifa's jaw had clenched, and Vincent's hand had strayed to his hip, where a rifle and a handgun were comfortably settled in their holsters. Sephiroth decided that he would prefer to keep them there. He looked away from the girl, not wishing to provoke any of the people surrounding him.

"I do not recall either Tifa or Yuffie very clearly." He said slowly, precisely. "The name Vincent seems very familiar to me... as do you, Aeris. I can't remember why I know you or should know you..."

"That's fine. That's... um. Well, to tell you the truth, I'm not sure it would do any good to tell you. It's all gone and past. I don't think we should go into it." Aeris told him, but so regretfully he almost didn't speak. Almost.

"I believe it is my right to determine whether I would know my own past." Sephiroth sneered, angry and distrustful once more.

"I believe it is our right to determine what is to occur, considering we are responsible for your life in this wilderness." Vincent's voice was chilling. Sephiroth had absolutely no doubt that the man would leave him here, wherever here happened to be, and whatever dangers it presented. It was not in his character to give up easily, but he fell sullenly silent, knowing he had no chance of survival without these people. His limbs ached from long disuse and sudden activity, and it was plain that this cloak was not his own. Vincent would take it back if he left, and it was plain from the howling of the wind outside the cave that he would freeze to his death without it. Perhaps even with the cloak. Sephiroth scowled beneath the cover of his silver fringe.

"Very well." He muttered.

Aeris glanced at Vincent disapprovingly, and the pale man shrugged coolly. Better that Sephiroth hated him than he know his past and be driven insane by it again. That thought made Vincent pause. Truly, both of them had been driven mad by their horrific pasts, though Vincent clung more often to lucidity than madness. It made him clench his jaw and walk back out to the mouth of the cave, denial and the laughter of the Chaos demon in his mind.

Yuffie looked after him suspiciously, then back to Sephiroth, then to Tifa. "What's the deal? Are we gonna move or what? I don't know about anyone else, but I'm freezing my butt off here!" She looked it, too. Both hands were clamped firmly onto the opposing shoulder in an effort to retain body heat and she was jogging frantically on the spot.

"I think we should get a move on to Glacier Village, but it'll be slow going without enough Chocobos. It's more dangerous than I'd like to ride double up here, and riding triple is definitely out of the question. It might be safer to just wait until morning."

Yuffie shook her head. "Nuh-uh. There's no way I'm waiting 'til morning to get to an inn." She declared stubbornly. There was a pause, and then a mischievous gleam lit her eyes. "I've got an idea, though. I'm gonna go out for a couple of hours, okay? I'm taking Falla with me. You guys can wait here until I get back, and then we can go to Glacier Village." She stopped jogging on the spot and skipped over to Falla, who stared curiously at her hyperactive owner. "Come on, let's go, Faffafaff! Get your big Chocobo butt up and at 'em!" Yuffie tugged impatiently at the bridle as Falla warked piteously. Still, the Chocobo climbed to her feet, crest brushing the ceiling of the cave, bending to the will of her obviously deranged mistress. Yuffie leapt lightly onto Falla's back and moved the reluctant bird out to the mouth of the cave. Kirato watched curiously.

"Where are you going?"

Vincent's voice made Yuffie jump. She turned in the saddle as the man freed himself from the shadows just inside the cave. She grinned at him.

"Don't worry about me, Vinnie. I'll be back in a little while."

Vincent's eyes glowed like miniature lava-lamps. "It is not safe to go on your own." He said disapprovingly. Yuffie refrained from making a face. She bet he was just worried she'd abandon them here. He should know better. She pouted in her mind.

"I said don't worry about me. Don't forget, Vincent Valentine, that I took care of myself for years before AVALANCHE came along." She turned her nose up, then winked at him. "I'll be back before you know it. Trust a little, Vinnie!" She nudged her Chocobo forward and Falla took a flying leap onto a ledge further down.

Vincent crossed his bare arms as the blue Chocobo and her rider disappeared into the snowy night. After a few minutes, he took a reluctant step back into the semi-warmth of the cave. Kirato shifted nervously at the nearness of the man. Vincent paid no heed, only staring hard out into the night.

Vincent uncrossed his arms, stretching slightly as he spotted Yuffie's blue Chocobo bounding up the rocks below. Behind Falla followed a robust green that did not look all that pleased to be there. Yuffie bounced off Falla's back as the blue skidded to a halt at the cave mouth and posed dramatically. "Tah-dah! Yuffie the Great strikes again!"

Vincent raised one eyebrow. He had to admit, he was impressed at her resourcefulness. "Where did you get it?"

Yuffie dragged the slightly irritable new green into the warmth of the cave as she answered. "Well, the Chocobo Sage let me borrow him for a little while." She said cheerfully. Vincent resisted an urge to sigh heavily.

"You stole it."

"No." Yuffie said indignantly. "Vinnie, I'm the leader of Wutai! I negotiated, and then I borrowed, and when we're done with him, I'm gonna take him back."

Vincent didn't reply, but his lips curled with something that might just possibly have been a wry smile if it wasn't so disused. He moved past the distrustful new green into the cave. "Try to keep your voice down. Tifa and Aeris were sleeping, last I checked."

"You mean you haven't been watching them? That's Sephiroth in there, in case you hadn't noticed!" Yuffie snapped in surprise, lowering her voice when Vincent shot her a dirty look. She tied the new green to Falla and, giving both birds the last of her supply of greens, followed Vincent into the cave. There was a pause. "How are they?" Slight worry in her tone. She peered past the merrily blazing fire and down at the slumbering forms of Aeris and Tifa. Sephiroth, who had been watching the flames silently, glanced up at her.

"You've returned." He observed stoically. Yuffie blinked and tried to remember why she hated him so much. There wasn't the same distinct aura of madness and evil surrounding him now as there had been when Jenova had been alive. He was looking much healthier than he had when she had left them only a few hours ago. She wasn't sure if this was a good or a bad thing.

"You were expecting something else?" She said loudly. Obviously a little too loudly, as Aeris stirred in her sleep. Tifa sat up, rubbing her eyes, and Yuffie slapped her hands over her mouth as Vincent glared. "Oops. Sorry."

Tifa grinned lopsidedly at her friend. "You're back. Where'd you go?"

"She stole a green from the Chocobo Sage." Vincent said before Yuffie could speak. Yuffie turned on him.

"Did not! Did not, did not, did nooooooot!" She argued. This time Aeris sat up as well. "It's not stealing if you talk to them about it! I told him I needed the Chocobo! And then I took it." She held a finger in front of his nose as he began to argue. "And don't even start, buddy! He oughta be grateful to me for saving his ass from Meteor anyways, and at the very least happy to help the leader of Wutai. I told you I was gonna take him back, and I will! As soon as we get to Nibelheim, if you're gonna be picky. Sheesh." She scowled and stomped closer to the fire, crossing her arms in a sulk. Aeris smiled as she got to her feet, graceful despite the cloth of her dress tangling around her legs.

"Are we heading out soon?" She asked. Tifa stretched and nodded.

"If that's all right with Vincent. Do you want to get some rest before we leave?" Tifa asked, concerned. Vincent shook his head slightly, dispelling his irritation.

"I will rest when we reach Glacier Village." He muttered.

Yuffie bounced up and down a few times, her happiness to be out of this place making her forget her anger at Vincent. "Yeah! Let's go!" She raced out toward the Chocobos again, doing an enthusiastic cartwheel that she instantly regretted as her cold muscles complained. Still, she bounced all around Falla, making the vaguely tired Chocobo snap her beak in irritation. Yuffie poked her tongue out at her Chocobo.

Tifa examined the recalcitrant new green critically, then tried to sooth its ruffled feathers by stroking its crest. "There are only three Chocobos, so two of us will have to ride tandem." There was a pause. No one wanted to ride tandem with Sephiroth.

Aeris spent several moments giving them a slightly frustrated glare, and then said, "Well, let's just see who gets on best with the new Chocobo and go from there." There was a hint of gritted teeth in her voice that they had rarely heard before, even in their past adventures. Yuffie laughed nervously.

"Eh heh heh heh... well, y'see, he doesn't like me too much." She admitted, holding out her hands. There were several red welts that were apparently from the peck of the green Chocobo. Vincent did not even bother to approach the Chocobo.

"He will not let me ride him." He said flatly. "Someone else will have to try."

Tifa's only reward for her attempts at coddling the new Green were indignant squawks and hisses. She set her hands on her hips in frustration. "Well, he won't let me on him, either. You try, Aeris."

The flower girl approached the green warily. It waved its tail plumes at her, bobbing its head and shifting from foot to foot. "Come on... it's all right, I'm not going to hurt you. I just need your help for a little while, and then you can go home." As she spoke, she took baby steps toward the Chocobo, which was apparently listening intently to her words. When she reached it, she carefully laid a hand on its neck, careful to keep speaking soothingly to the creature. Finally the green let out a warbling sound and nuzzled her hand affectionately. Yuffie 'hmph'ed and crossed her arms, sticking out her hip.

"Okay, okay, Miss Master of Chocobo Taming. Now we have to figure out which one of the Chocobos is gonna carry Mr Dark and Depressing over here." Yuffie jerked a thumb at Vincent, who looked away slightly.

"I can walk." He replied calmly. He missed the unhappy look that passed over Yuffie's face.

"Oh no you can't. We won't make good time if you're walking, and what's the point when I went to all the trouble of getting another Chocobo?" The ninja argued. "If the new Chocobo won't let you on, Kirato or Falla should. They know you by now."

Vincent's face was deadpan as he walked non-threateningly toward Kirato. The Chocobo warked and hopped away uneasily, stretching his tether. Vincent turned back to Yuffie, as though asking, "Satisfied?" Yuffie shook her head in annoyance and stomped over to Falla, who had half-closed her eyes sleepily. She patted her Chocobo reassuringly. "C'mere, Falla. There's someone I wanna introduce to you." She waved Vincent over, and he approached with a wary step. Falla cocked her head at him, uneasy, but trusting Yuffie enough to know that her mistress wouldn't put her in danger. Yuffie continued to stroke the Chocobo's neck as she swung herself up onto Falla's back.

"That's right, Falla, this is Vinnie Valentine, and you're gonna let him ride with us, aren't you? You're such a good girl." Yuffie cooed. Falla turned her head to get her big beak out of her line of sight as Vincent continued to approach. The gunman held his hands out in a gesture of peace as he walked toward her and carefully stroked her neck. Falla stiffened for a few seconds, bating nervously, but then stretched out her neck and closed her eyes in enjoyment. She warked cheerfully, and bobbed her head as Yuffie congratulated her with, "Good girl, Fal-Fal! See, Vinnie isn't scary at all, huh? Come on, Vinnie. Let's see if she can carry your big butt." Yuffie winked obnoxiously, trying to keep her mind off the fact that she would very soon have the garnet-eyed man sitting behind her. Vincent, with a long-suffering sigh, swung himself up behind her. Falla shifted, unused to the extra weight, but warked happily when Yuffie clicked her tongue.

Aeris was meanwhile sitting on the new green, trying to persuade it to let Sephiroth on. Tifa had discovered that while Kirato was perfectly happy to let her on, he would only let Sephiroth on if she rode as well. Kirato was not built for tandem riding, so it had fallen on the other green. Sephiroth and the bird eyed each other suspiciously. Aeris smiled over the bird's wing. "He won't bite." The green's expression seemed to say it differently. Nevertheless, Sephiroth moved past and cautiously swung himself up on the bird's back. The sudden movement made him slightly dizzy, and as the green warked and shifted anxiously, the disorientation was only made worse. He grabbed Aeris' waist and winced until the feeling subsided.

Aeris' obvious discomfort made Tifa feel like she should get this trip over and done with as soon as possible. "Okay, so is everyone ready?"

"Everyone gone to the bathroom?" Yuffie chipped in cheekily. Tifa grinned at her young friend and swung herself into Kirato's saddle.

"All right, let's move out. We're headed to Glacier Village. Follow me." She dug her heels into Kirato's sides, and moved to exit the cave.

"Yeehah! Hot food and hot showers here we _come!_" Yuffie hollered. Vincent's eyes widened. Anyone who had witnessed Yuffie on a Chocobo knew what was to follow. He abandoned all thought of holding the Death Penalty in place and held onto whatever he could. Falla let out a wark of challenge and charged out of the cave at the same moment Vincent tightened his knees around the Chocobo's back and wrapped his human arm around Yuffie's waist as an anchor. Tifa watched the cheering, warking and silently screaming blue and black blur as it charged out of the cave, leapt down the rocky ledges and darted away through the trees. She sighed. _Poor Vincent._

As they rode into Glacier Village, Aeris turned slightly in the saddle. "Sephiroth... it might be a good idea to pull up the collar of that cloak for a while... can you tuck your hair into it, too?"

Sephiroth nodded slightly and did so, noting with disgust the condition of his hair. It would have to be remedied. Preferably soon. "Is there any particular advantage to be gained from remaining unrecognised?" He asked glibly. Aeris' shoulders slumped slightly.

"We... neither of us are supposed to be here." She said sadly. There was a pause as Sephiroth glanced around him warily. "You need to cover the Masamune, too. And... it might be a good idea to close your eyes."

_Well, why don't I just dig myself a hole in the ground while I'm at it?_ Sephiroth thought bitterly. "When are you going to tell me what is going on?"

Aeris' hand left the reins, lifted to touch the ribbon at her throat. "I'm sorry."

And she was, you could tell. Sephiroth, despite his annoyance at having information with-held from him, felt sorry for her. She seemed the type to whom important and often horrible things happened to for no apparent reason. She reminded him of things from a past he would rather forget. He knew he had seen that face before.

_The body slumped to the ground as he removed the sword with a savage twist. Blood spattered out away from the sword, the warm liquid pouring out between the soft white hands, clutched to the wound in her stomach. Green eyes slid closed, hidden forever behind frames of long lashes. _Cetra bitch! You'll pay for your betrayal! _Fond, loving pride from his beloved mother.__ Outside he smirked, but inside he screamed._

Sephiroth jerked away from Aeris' back with a gasp and nearly fell off the Chocobo. She looked back at him, worry in her wide green eyes. Sephiroth let his gaze unfocus to stare through her as a cat would, unable to look at her any longer. Aeris returned her emerald gaze to the town ahead, and smiled slightly at a small child on a snowboard. It was good to see that this place hadn't changed a great deal.

Tifa sized their party up and decided that she was probably the best one to talk to the innkeeper. She gave Kirato to the stable hand and told her friends to wait outside. Yuffie, of course, having completely exhausted both herself and her Chocobo, did not think this a very good idea. Vincent dismounted, offering Yuffie a hand. She blinked at it and then took it to slide off Falla's back, strangely quiet as the five of them went into the inn, leaving three tired and cranky Chocobos with the poor stable hand.

"We'll need two rooms for the night, please." Tifa asked the woman at the reception area. The woman looked their party over listlessly.

"Names?" She asked dully. Tifa blinked. This was new.

"Um... I'm Tifa Lockhart. Just put them both down under that."

"I need your names, miss. Inn policy." Tifa could just hear the woman thinking, _In case you're all criminals and we stand to make some money out of this._ She was beginning to dislike this woman. Besides, what could she call Sephiroth? He looked suspicious enough as it was.

"Tifa Lockhart, Vincent Valentine, Yuffie Kisaragi and... Aeris and Seth Gainsborough." Yuffie snapped irritably from behind Tifa. "You'd better have damn nice rooms for all the time you're making us stand around." Sephiroth, who had been standing at the back of the group with his eyes half-lidded shadily, raised an eyebrow at this. He followed the group upstairs, listening absently to the Aeris' voice as she tried to cheer Yuffie up.

_"Couldn't think of a last name, huh? So much for the great ninja Yuffie!"_

_"I didn't see _you_ doing anything, Mrs Sephiroth."_

_  
"_Anyone_ could have come up with _Seth_."_

_"So why didn't you?"_

_"You're the sneaky one. I thought you had it covered."_

_"I _did_ have it covered."_

_"Yeah, right!"_

The listless woman from the counter gave 'Seth' and Tifa a set of keys, and went back down to the counter without even wishing them a pleasant stay. Yuffie poked her tongue out behind the woman's back, then darted into the room. "I have first dibs on our shower! Ooh! And the window bed!" They heard the whoosh of a flying shuriken as she frisbeed it onto the bed to reserve her spot. Tifa looked at Aeris and rolled her eyes, and then blinked to stop tears. It had been so long since she had had Aeris around to _do_ that with. She walked into the room, leaving Vincent, Sephiroth and Aeris standing in the corridor.

"The rooms are connected." Vincent said, staring at Sephiroth over Aeris' head. "Good night, Mr and Mrs Gainsborough." He walked into the room and shut the door behind him. Aeris covered her smile with her hand and giggled.

"Come on, Seth." She said, taking the keys from him and letting them into the other hotel room. Vincent had already unlocked the door that joined the two rooms, and was standing there with his arms folded solemnly. Sephiroth closed the door behind him and, out of age-old habit, locked it behind him. He lowered the collar of Vincent's cape and shook out his hair impatiently. Aeris looked back at him. "...Vincent, I think we need to get Sephiroth some warmer clothes."

"I think we need to get Sephiroth some warmer clothes, too." Sephiroth said evenly. "Your cape is very old-fashioned, Valentine. And I detest red."

Vincent shrugged. "Do what you want to. Yuffie may wish to join you, when she surrenders the shower."

"No she won't. She'd rather freeze tomorrow than go back out into the snow today." Aeris sighed, knowing her young friend far too well. "I'll pick her up a jacket, too. What colour do you think she'd--?"

Vincent's expression spoke well enough. Aeris covered another smile. "I guess you're not the one to ask. Well, I'll just go talk to her through the bathroom door. Wait a second, okay?" She slipped past Vincent into the other room, leaving the two men to stare at each other coldly.

Vincent, surprisingly, spoke first. "You may also wish to purchase a lighter weapon. You maybe unable to wield the Masamune effectively at this time."

Sephiroth smiled mirthlessly. "I'll keep that in mind. As it is, I think I can use it adequately." He unsheathed it to prove his point, and Vincent's hand gun was immediately cocked and aimed directly at the silver-haired man's head. Sephiroth stared at him in surprise. He had not been planning on attacking the other man. "What are you doing?"

Vincent's voice was perfectly level. "Proving that you are not fast enough with the Masamune. I would recommend a lighter sword for the moment."

Aeris returned and stopped in the doorway with a shocked "No!" She took a few steps forward, but Sephiroth had already lowered his sword. The hand gun was back in its holster. Aeris eyed both of them suspiciously. "What was that about?"

Sephiroth sheathed the Masamune and smiled slightly, infuriatingly, as he carefully tucked his hair back beneath the red cape. "Vincent was suggesting I also purchase a lighter sword. I believe I may. You might want to buy a..."

_Green eyes burned fiercely from behind a hovering staff charged with magical power. Flames burst from the thing, and then she caught it again, stepping back until she could attack again._

"...a staff." He blinked. Where had that come from? Aeris was looking at Vincent intensely, trying to communicate something with him. She turned back to him, hands on hips.

"Yes. I might. Thankyou. Shall we go? Tifa gave me some Gil." She stormed to the door and unlocked it irritably. Sephiroth tucked his chin back into the recesses of the cape. Vincent nodded.

"Be careful."

"We will." Aeris' voice was slightly softer, calmer. Sephiroth followed her downstairs and out into the snow again, wondering what any of the clothes merchants here would think of someone as filthy as he currently was trying on jackets.

Yuffie sat in on the floor near her bed by the window, her top half swathed in thin, scratchy hotel blankets. She shivered slightly. The shower had warmed her from head to toe, but being without a spare pair of shorts really sucked. Getting back into her dirt-smeared, Chocobo-smelling shorts had not been fun, particularly since it was _freezing_. She hoped Aeris brought her back something nice to use as pyjamas, because she didn't want to make the sheets all grossness with her shorts. And she couldn't just sleep without them, sharing a room with Vinnie and Tifa. What if she had to go to the bathroom or something? Yuffie brought her knees up to her blanket-covered shoulders and shivered. Gawds. She was so cold she couldn't feel her toes.

Or her fingers. She rubbed them together feverishly. She could start a fire in the grate, but that was way over the other side of the room, and if she abandoned the warm spot she had made, she'd be even colder. Yuffie sighed heavily. It was a tough choice. _Warm spot... fire... warm spot... fire..._ Fire eventually won out, and Yuffie reluctantly abandoned her blanket coverings to paw through her pack for her Fire materia.

She sighed again. _Dammit_. Tifa had her Fire materia. And the only one left around was Vinnie's crappy unMastered one. What a bummer. He was in the shower, though, so she couldn't ask him. Oh well. She'd put it back right after she started a fire - who wanted something as low-levelled as _that_, anyway? Not her, that was for sure. She bounced over to where Vincent's pack lay, alone and unloved, against the far wall. _Now, Vinnie always keeps his extra materia in the front pocket..._ She unclipped the compartment and pulled out one green orb at a time until she found the right one, and replaced the rest carefully, so that he'd never know it was disturbed.

Doing some impromptu gymnastics to keep herself limber, she landed in front of the grate and declared, "Fire!" There was a blast of flame in front of her and she hastily stepped back. "Guess this thing is more powerful than it looks." She stood for a few minutes, warming herself by the fire and examining the materia. That got her thinking about the cracked Leviathan materia she still had in her pocket. She fished out both halves and stared at them morosely. She didn't know how the hell it had wound up like this - she hadn't even known you _could_ break materia. As far as she knew, they just dissolved when they reached a certain age. But not the Kisaragi Leviathan - it was special. She frowned, staring down at the crimson orb. Even in the firelight it seemed dim. _Leviathan is no more._

She hadn't dared try the derivative materia born from the original. She wasn't sure what result she would come up with, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know. If that was the end of Leviathan, she didn't, that was for sure. _Because if they can do this to Leviathan, then they can do that to Dad._

Yuffie chided herself as tears sprang to her eyes. She wasn't even that close to her father. He was just a weak old man, that was all. It was pathetic, how he needed her to go running off around the globe for him. Materia. Getting kidnapped. It was all the same. She bit her lip stubbornly, and rose to go and put the Fire materia back in Vincent's bag.

"What are you doing?"

Yuffie nearly jumped out of her skin, spinning around and falling the short distance to the floor. "Gawds! Vinnie, don't sneak up on me like that!" She hadn't even noticed the shower stop running.

Vincent's eyes glowed darkly. "What are you doing?" He repeated, a hint of angry suspicion blooming in his tone.

Yuffie blinked and looked at the materia she still held. "Oh! I was just-" She stopped at the look of complete disdain she was receiving. Vincent grasped her arm less than gently and hauled her to her feet.

"I had thought that a year as second-in-command of Wutai would have curbed your kleptomaniacal tendencies." _Uh oh, _thought Yuffie. _Vinnie's__ very angry._ This thought was back up by sudden painful pressure of fingers on her wrist, jamming into pressure points with ruthless efficiency. Her hand fell limp, and the Fire materia fell to the floor. Vincent's eyes followed it, narrowing, and he dropped her hand in disgust. "I see I was wrong."

Yuffie stared at her hand for a second. "But Vinnie, I was just-"

Vincent's eyes bored into hers. "Perhaps Cid was correct, and your only interest in this quandary stems from materia."

Yuffie's mind took a few seconds to translate Vincent's words into regular, everyday Yuffie-speech. Then a cold fury washed over her. "Well maybe you're an _asshole_ and so is _Cid_ and did it ever occur to you that I gave my Fire materia to Tifa, and it's fifteen degrees below zero and maybe I was using your goddamn materia to light a freaking _fire?_" She dug a hand into her own materia pouch, flinging them at him furiously. "You know what, Vincent, just punch yourself really hard in the stomach, because I'm too goddamn tired to do it myself." She shoved past him, nearly slipping on the scattered materia orbs as she stormed to her bed. She ripped the covers back and crawled beneath them, pulling them up to her ears to choke back a furious sob. _It doesn't matter what I do or how old I am, I'm nothing but a selfish brat to him - to everyone!_

Vincent, standing with his back to the flickering firelight, closed his eyes tiredly and brought his human hand up to rub his face. _Fool. Haven't you learned, hasn't it been proven to you over and over again, that she is deeper than she seems, and that she is loyal to AVALANCHE?_ He bent cautiously, like an old man, to retrieve Yuffie's materia from the floor. Three Magic, a Command and an Independant. Ignoring his own Fire materia for the moment, he trudged to Yuffie's bedside. Her shoulders shook slightly beneath the blankets, and he clenched his teeth. _Truly you deserve the punishments you reap. Monster._

"I am sorry, Yuffie. I spoke without thinking. I know that your father and AVALANCHE mean more to you than that." He sat down on her bed, carefully arranging her materia on the bedside table.

"Just go away, Vincent. I'm a stupid brat who steals Chocobos and only cares about materia, remember? You don't have to spare _my_ feelings."

Vincent bowed his head. "I deserve that. I'm... sorry. Having Sephiroth around is very unsettling to me. Please... forgive my temper?"

There was a pause as Yuffie took a couple of deep, calming breaths. Then, "Consider your temper forgiven." She rolled over to face him, her eyes still filled with tears, but she was no longer crying. Vincent rested his claw arm on her blanketed shoulder for a moment, as close to showing friendship as Vincent ever got, and stood.

"I am going to move my things into the other room." She heard what he didn't say out loud: _I do not trust Sephiroth enough to be in the same room as Aeris._ Come to that, Yuffie didn't either. Vincent was probably the one who could handle himself best against Sephiroth on his own. It made sense that he be the one to share a room with the guy. It didn't mean she had to like it, though.

Yuffie wrinkled her nose as she removed her day-old shorts beneath the covers and dropped them onto the floor beside her bed. It wouldn't matter, if she was sharing with Tifa and Aeris. And Vinnie wasn't the kind of macho moron who went around being a pain in the ass and ripping the sheets off sleeping people, anyway. "Vinnie?"

There was a muffled "Yes, Yuffie?" from the other room.

"Can you wake me up when Tifa comes back with food?"

"I will. Do you need another blanket? There are spares..." He walked back in, dug through a closet until he found what he wanted, and spread the blanket over her with all the fussing appropriate of a mother. (In a Vincent kind of way. Which was basically a half-hearted throw and several cursory tugs, but it made her feel better.) Yuffie grinned into her pillow as he left the room again. Vinnie, despite being a really grumpy guy at the moment, was cool.

A/N: And that's the end of the entirely pointless seventh chapter! grin Well, not pointless. It illustrates less than a single iota of the frustration of Chocobos, and of the hate the author feels towards them. Hate, hate, hate. Because her game is seriously rigged to NOT let her win any Chocobo races. No matter how many Sylkis greens she feeds them. Cursed things. pout

Well, at least until Kiro. Kiro is a beautiful Chocobo. Yes, he is. coos over Kiro

Any reviews are welcome, all flaming will be entirely ignored or rallied viciously against... and thankyou to all the people who've reviewed so far. :)

Next chapter - Tifa and Co. get back to Nibelheim... how will everyone react to the return of Sephiroth? How will Cloud react to seeing Aeris again? And most important of all... how do they keep Sephiroth from going insane again? o0;;


	8. Sympathy for the Devil

Disclaimer: Anything from Final Fantasy VII does not belong to me. One day I'll get around to making a list of all the things I own, and then I'll provide a link to it for every disclaimer...

A/N: The beginning of the descent into hell... the inevitable return to Nibelheim. Angst! Woe! Misery! A fun chapter for all, then. Particularly Tifa, poor girl. And let's just pretend that the only truck in Nibelheim got shunted to the opposite end of the village. Broken down machinery is best seen while one is LEAVING the village in question. ;)

And again... the stock is the substance of soup:mad giggling:

Faith and Feather

Chapter Eight: Sympathy For The Devil

The sun was just setting, a blaze of glory behind the mountains that surrounded the village now called Nibelheim. It provided a stunning backdrop to the travellers, or silhouettes thereof, who had just passed by the only truck in the village. They seemed weary as they dismounted their Chocobos, and no wonder. They had entered the village from the mountain.

Mt Nibel had claimed no meagre amount of lives since the establishment of the village at its foot. Though the mako reactor nestled in its crags had sapped all fertility from the hard black spires of the mountain, the village was still lush and warm - once you were on the inside of one of the few houses or stores, Yuffie reflected, leaning forward into Falla's neck to compensate for the fact that Vincent's warmth behind her had disappeared. The blue warked tiredly as Yuffie dismounted and nuzzled her mistress as though to say, "Sleep now." Yuffie started towards the high wall and trees of the Shinra mansion but Vincent's hand stopped her.

"I must check on Obsydia."

Those unfamiliar with Vincent's method of monotonous speech would not have detected the hint of concern that had crept into his tone. While Sephiroth merely sneered about him, Aeris, Tifa and Yuffie nodded immediately.

"Sure. We'll come with you." Tifa told him. Vincent led them to the item store and shouldered the door open despite the late hour. He held it patiently for Tifa and Aeris, ignoring the studious glare Sephiroth was directing at the world at large. Yuffie held up a hand to catch the door as she stepped inside, and was surprised when Vincent continued to hold it open. She stared at him. A year ago, he would have left her to hold the door herself. Part of her raged - does he think I've gone soft, learning to be Lady of Wutai?

Most of her smiled.

He thinks I'm a woman now. Not just some bratty girl. The thought made her flush happily. At least until Vincent said, boredly,

"Yuffie, you are letting the cold air in."

Yuffie jumped out of the way, cursing herself, and Vincent closed the door as feet stomped down the stairs of the store. A copper-haired woman appeared, looking irritated.

"Can't you see I'm close-- Vincent!" Her expression changed to one of surprise. "You're back. Where have you been?"

"Away." Vincent's reply, mysterious as ever, was clipped, as though he was too tired to socialise. "Jennifer, these are my friends. Tifa, Yuffie, and Aeris and Seth Gainsborough." Sephiroth raised his eyes to the ceiling at the continued charade. "This is Jennifer."

"More of the AVALANCHE crowd, huh? I saw your buddies in the airship come in yesterday. Hi," she added, shaking Tifa's hand. "Nice to meet you." She greeted Aeris next, and when 'Seth' refused to perform the required formality, turned to Aeris and said, candidly, "If you don't give it to them long enough, they move out of the sulking stage, I hear."

Aeris, despite having protested her girlish naïveté almost constantly, turned bright red. Vincent sighed slightly, apparently regretting his decision to bring them here. "Jenny, is Obsydia here?"

Jennifer turned around and grinned. "Yeah. She was in a bit of a state when she got here, though. Not hurt," she added reassuringly, "Just really shaken up. You oughta take better care of her, Vincent." She led them through a door to a small Chocobo stable. Obsydia let out a joyful trill at the sight of her master. Vincent's shoulders slackened. Relieved, he petted his black, ruffling the feathers of her neck with something that was almost a smile. He unlatched her stall door, nodding to Jennifer.

"Thankyou for taking care of her."

"No problem, Vince. Good to see you with friends about." Jennifer bobbed a nod to them all. "Well, I'm for a hot bath. I'll see you folks around, maybe." She closed the door behind her as she left the stable.

Tifa grinned mischievously as they walked back towards the mansion. "So, Vincent, who's she?"

"Jennifer. She owns the item store." Vincent said calmly. Tifa winked at Aeris, who was still slightly pink from Jenny's comment, and muttering to herself.

"I think it's sweet. Does she give you discounts?"

Vincent glanced at her. "What?"

"Oh, Vincent. Is this why we didn't hear from you for so long? Were you off..." Tifa waggled her eyebrows. "...Chocobo breeding?"

"Knock it off, Tifa." Yuffie snapped.

"I'm afraid you've misinterpreted our relationship, Tifa." Vincent said, completely unflustered. "Jennifer is a friend of mine, who takes care of Obsydia when I am unable to do so."

Tifa stifled a giggle, then a gasp as Yuffie stormed grumpily ahead of them into the darkness of the mountain twilight, tugging Falla behind her. Tifa's amusement faded. "Oh... I was only teasing..."

"It should not affect her." Vincent said, more sharply than he had intended. Tifa snorted, then fell silent, glancing at the feet of the tall gunman beside her. Oh Vincent... is that really what you think?

Yuffie was waiting for them by the open gate of the mansion. "Was the new look a present from your girl friend, Vinnie?" She asked, attempted cheer corroding in the acid of the words. Vincent glanced at the restored mansion and had the grace to blush.

"The village was grateful for my work in AVALANCHE." He said simply. "It was this way when I returned to Nibelheim."

"From the waterfall. To the coffin." Yuffie's voice was as cold as stone. Tifa glanced at her, shocked. Vincent closed his eyes obtusely and unlidded them slowly as he passed her.

"To the coffin." He echoed her emptily, letting go of Obsydia and waving her towards the stables.

Aeris watched them as they entered the grounds, feeling more alone than ever. AVALANCHE had reformed around her death, fused together around her absence. But perhaps there was still a place for her. Maybe Cloud would make there a place...

...Cloud...

She touched her fingertips to her mother's black ribbon. The Planet's voice, the voices of her ancestors, were nearly nonexistent here.

...I'm alone. Mother, help me.

"Do you plan to stand there all night? Tempted as I am to let the Nibel wolves devour you, Valentine would not be pleased." Sephiroth's cold tones cut through her reverie like steel. Aeris tried not to show her pain on her face, but it was hard. She had never been able to hide her emotions. She didn't like it. It was dishonest, to the world and to yourself. She took a quick breath.

"Quiet, Seth, or no sex for a month."

She heard an indignant sputter as she made her way over paving stones on a perfect lawn. The sound made her smile.

Sephiroth scowled as he followed the flower girl, but it was not at Aeris. Something about this place was extremely unsettling. The feeling of... what was it? Dread? ...became more pronounced as he walked into the stagnant living room. Even the light-hearted colour and the blazing fire could not purge the place of an almost clinical coldness... Sephiroth blinked. How was that possible? It was a beautiful room. The perfect Nibelian home. So why was he so...

Afraid?

No.

Sephiroth's gaze travelled to the stained glass window, a beautiful angel immortalised in its panes, and was struck with a sudden, crystal clear surge of memory.

Stinging pain in his arm, cold bench beneath him. All around him, surgical implements sat on trays, some of them tinged with blood already. Tears behind his eyes, because Father was angry when he showed them. And Father was here now, though he never called Sephiroth son', only the specimen'. He was here, coldly removing an empty syringe from Sephiroth's tiny six-year-old arm.

"That's enough for today. You have tactical theory this afternoon. Go with Tseng."

"Yes sir." He returned dully, as Father turned him out of the lab into the carefully chiselled stone corridor beyond. A tall Wutaian teenager took his hand and walked boredly down the passageway with him. Sephiroth looked distrustfully at the Other Door as he passed it. He hated the Other Door. There were always screams and sadness that no one else seemed to hear...

"Sephiroth? Are you coming?" Though Tifa's voice was warm, her ruby eyes concerned, Sephiroth felt suddenly cold. What was this place?

"I... yes." He looked around him paranoidly, then walked up the stairs quickly, eyes averted from the stained glass window, unknowingly following a path he had tread for years. He hadn't seen where Vincent and Yuffie had gone ahead of him, but he knew the way. He knew the way, and it brought a thrill of terror that choked him as he walked away.

Tifa watched him as he walked, recognising the fear though she couldn't read him as she could others. Her eyes were sorrowful before she reminded herself that she hated him. A hand touched hers and squeezed, and she looked down at Aeris.

"Thankyou." Said the flower girl, heartfelt happiness in her eyes. Tifa smiled back.

"It's all right. I'll help you, Aeris. And the Planet." And maybe even Sephiroth, she added in her mind, following the silver-haired man down the hallways.

* * *

Yuffie bounced into the room with the secret passage and grinned despite herself as she found herself at the wrong ends of Barret's gun-arm and Cid's Venus Gospel. "Oops, ya got me!"

Cid shook his head, cigarette smoke making a thick line for a few seconds before he blew it away. "God help us, the brat is back."

Yuffie pouted. "Shera must've been on drugs when she agreed to marry you, Cid Highwind!"

"Hey Vince," Barret nodded. "How'd it go?"

Yuffie turned around to regard Vincent, standing in the door behind her. "As well as can be expected. Barret, I must ask you to activate the safety catch on your gun arm. Yuffie, take the Venus Gospel. We have some new arrivals that should not be shot or stabbed at."

"Right." Yuffie nodded and held out her hands for the Venus Gospel. Cid eyed her suspiciously before handing over the heavy spear.

"I know which materia I have in that." He growled.

Vincent almost winced. _Worst possible time, Highwind._

Surprisingly, Yuffie didn't even start screaming. She thumped the end of the spear into the floor and said, "I have about three of all of those, and they're all Mastered. What makes you think I'd want yours?" She slung the spear over her shoulders coolly and looked back at the stony-faced Vincent. He took a step forward as Sephiroth appeared behind him, but remained directly between the silver-haired swordsman and Cid and Barret.

Barret's arm came up instantly, the safety of his gun arm off as soon as he clicked it on. "Look out, Vince!"

Vincent shook his head. "Put down your weapons."

"Jesus fing Christ!" Cid exploded. "Vincent, you're #$ing crazy. Yuffie, give me back my goddamn spear!"

"Nuh-uh." Yuffie said. "Cid, take a chill pill, or you're gonna inhale that gross cigarette of yours. Didn't we say we had some new arrivals?"

"It's okay Barret, Cid." Tifa squeezed past Sephiroth into the now rather cramped room. "We have to go down and see Cloud. Aeris says..."

"Aeris? How can Aeris say anythin'? Aeris is--" Barret stopped as the flower girl pushed past the irked-looking Sephiroth. His eyes widened.

"I'm right here, Barret." She moved forward, hands smoothing the fabric over her stomach. Over her stomach, where the sword had gone through the flesh, slicing through her spine, killing her almost instantly. Tears stood in Barret's eyes abruptly, but it didn't matter, because Cid was looking away to hide his own.

"Jesus..." Cid muttered. "I think you'd better go down and see the kid." He looked at Yuffie. "Give me back the Venus Gospel, brat."

Yuffie glared at him, but didn't reply. She held out the spear, dropped it heavily on his foot, and shoved aside the door to the secret passage as Cid swore. Vincent went after her, just ahead of Sephiroth and Tifa. Aeris stopped between the two men and looked to Barret.

"Marlene knew I was coming back, didn't she? She told you." She lay a hand on his arm and Barret nodded.

"Yeah, she knew. She told me. I didn't have the heart to tell her otherwise, and neither did Elmyra." He sniffed loudly, his words gruff. "I'm glad you're back."

Aeris smiled at the big black man and then turned to Cid and said brightly, "Congratulations." Cid blinked, then grinned sheepishly, registering on the major congratulatory event that had occurred after the defeat of Sephiroth.

"Guess you saw it coming, huh?"

"Right." Aeris agreed, emerald eyes crinkling. "I'll be back later to talk more... okay?"

"Sure thing, kid. Whenever you're done." Cid stood up straighter with the help of the Venus Gospel as Aeris vanished through the secret door into the darkness beyond. He took a deep breath and let out a loud sigh. "Damn me." He commented to no one in particular. Barret nodded in agreement.

"Damn straight."

* * *

Yuffie got to the bottom of the spiralling staircase and swiped her hand against her shorts in disgust. She wasn't even very girly, but this place was disgusting. She crept along in the dark, towards the door outlined with feeble yellow light. Any light was better than none, she supposed, but that was a weak bulb if ever she'd seen one. She pulled the door open and found herself in the line of a gun for the second time in ten minutes. She sighed impatiently.

"It's just me, Reno... geez, whatever happened to 'Welcome back!'?" She waved at him. "Can you put your gun down please?"

Reno chuckled. "Sorry, brat. A couple of days in this place is enough to make anyone jumpy." He stuck the gun back into his belt as Yuffie put her grimy hands on her hips.

"Don't call me brat, Turk. And don't shoot the people who come through, okay? No matter what. Is Cloud through here? I'll go get him." She strode lightly between the shelves, leaving Reno to shake his head at her words and glance up at the door again to see just who would manifest from the darkness.

Glowing red eyes made his hand twitch towards his gun out of reflex, but he stilled the urge when Vincent Valentine stepped from the shadows, into the wavering light of the single bulb. Reno waved a hand lazily. "Nice place you got here, Valentine."

His eyes peered into the shadows, expecting to be blessed with the eye candy that was Tifa Lockhart. Instead, the next to break from the shadows in the stone corridor was enough to make him whip out the hand gun and yell for Rude and Elena, the words tearing through the lump of disbelief and horror that had formed in his throat.

Vincent was speaking to him urgently, but he wasn't hearing a word coming out of the man's mouth. He was seeing the cat-like, alien green eyes, and hearing Elena's muffled sobs and the metallic slide of sword blade through the flesh of his mentor. "Get out of the way, Valentine!" Rude, sitting on the couch, refusing even to get drunk, while Reno stared into his empty shotglass. Always empty, even though he kept refilling it, kept emptying bottles, trying desperately to fill up the gaping agony of the hole inside him.

"Reno, put the gun down!" Vincent was yelling this time. Vincent never yelled. Reno was still gesturing with his gun for the bloody eyed man to get out of his line of fire. Rude and Elena skidded to a halt beside him, their own weapons aimed and drawn. Lana was behind him, too. He could hear her swearing.

"Get out of the way, Vincent!"

"Put down your weapons," The roar barely formed words. It was more a bestial threat, an order to obey or be destroyed. Every instinct Reno had complied instantly, rolling onto their backs with puppy-whines. _Don't hurt me. I'll be good._ Vincent's eyes blazed with fury, the fury of a man used to being obeyed. "Do not raise a gun at me again."

It was the Turk in him, Reno supposed as his gun dropped from his fingertips with a clatter swiftly followed by the clink of Elena and Rude's hand guns. It was an automatic obedience to someone who was faster, better and stronger than you were. Reno swore at himself. It was not a good habit to get into when you were a Turk. Plenty of the bastards he had hunted down had had killer barks. If they all yelled like that, he might just lose his job unless he got used to it.

Vincent eyed them all coldly, some of the rage seeping away. Yuffie ran back into the room, took one look around and screeched, "Dammit, Reno, didn't I tell you not to shoot anyone?"

Annoyance was a reaction that Reno usually had after moments of fiercely pumping adrenaline. "You didn't say anything about the return of #$ing Sephiroth!"

Vincent finally stepped out of the way, walking over to a corner, apparently having had enough of guns being aimed at him for one day. And then, as Sephiroth stepped carefully into the room, moving slowly so as not to provoke another attack, Cloud stepped up behind Yuffie, and Aeris stepped through the door into the light.

There was a slight choked sound from Cloud. "Aeris." He walked a few steps numbly, holding his arms out to her, and she stepped into the embrace with a warm smile.

"Cloud..."

Tifa remained in the shadows outside the door so that Cloud couldn't see her heart breaking in her face. In the darkness she consoled herself until she felt she was ready to step into the flickering light of that wan bulb... and she smiled and waved happily at Cloud like nothing was wrong, like she wanted nothing more than to see him reunited with her. She wanted him to love her. But if he's happy with her, then... I suppose I want that, too.

Cloud's eyes were red-rimmed when he opened them again, and he stared at Sephiroth with an uncomprehending disbelief. The silver haired man looked away from the leader of AVALANCHE, uncomfortable and confused, as Cloud held Aeris to his chest.

"Why is he here?"

Aeris' happiness dimmed. She pulled back, away from Cloud, even though his arms tried to keep her there. "Cloud... the Planet brought me back. She told me that I had to bring him back, too."

Cloud looked from her to Sephiroth, and finally to Tifa. "...I think it might be good to know what the hell has been going on for the past couple of days." He sounded shocked, but having Aeris back had apparently burnt away any anger he might have had at the fact that the man who had killed her was standing less than ten feet away.

Aeris smiled again and buried her face in Cloud's shoulder. He was giving him a chance.

* * *

The fire blazed in the marble hearth, occasionally sending bright sparks streaming away in a crazy dance as the burning wood shifted in its flaming bed. The members of AVALANCHE were firmly ensconced around the room, having dragged extra chairs from the large, beautiful dining room as required. The Turks - Lana being grouped with them because of her affiliation with Shinra - alternately sat and stood uneasily around the fire. Every so often, eyes darted to where Sephiroth stood, outside the circle, alone.

Tifa sat opposite Cloud, hands on her knees, with Yuffie perched on the arm of the chair like a cat. Tifa had explained, occasionally looking to Vincent and Yuffie to see if either of them had anything to add. Yuffie had explained rather obscurely what she had seen in the crystal, and Cloud raised an eyebrow at her. Aeris understood perfectly.

We can't let Sephiroth know that he was dead. He'd... I don't know what he'd do. She admitted to herself. Standing up, she walked over to Sephiroth. "Come on, Sephiroth. Shall we go make some food?"

Sephiroth stared at her blankly, but Rude of the Turks pushed himself away from the wall. "I'll help." He offered casually, and Aeris smiled at him. Rude nodded to her, but she could tell he wasn't coming because of the cooking.

"Me too. We'll get more done with more people." Lana said. "Let's go."

Sephiroth's eyes narrowed. What don't you want me to know? Nevertheless, he followed Aeris to the kitchen, where she pointed to an enormous pot.

"Can you put that on the stove? We can have soup. That'll feed us all without being too much trouble."

"Good idea," Lana agreed. She crouched down to sort through Vincent's pantry, pulling out an assortment of onions and potatoes. Rude silently collected more greens and meat from the fridge. Aeris smiled, clasping her hands in front of her.

"Okay... now... what does every good soup need?" She chimed, obviously trying to make this last as long as possible. Rude raised an eyebrow behind his glasses. Lana looked up from chopping an onion, squinting through teary eyes.

"Meat?" She hazarded, waving a knife dangerously close to her face as she wiped at her eyes with her arm. Aeris shook her head, ("Guess again!") and Sephiroth sighed.

"Stock." Unwillingly, he sorted through the contents of Vincent's cupboards until he found what he was looking for, and tossed it over his shoulder to Aeris. She blinked, catching it just before it hit her in the nose. Then she flicked some stock cubes into the cauldron-sized pot and said,

"That's right! Now, we need hot water and..."

Sephiroth was already scowling as he lugged the heavy pot from the stove and dragged it to the sink. Wonderful. A flower girl thinks she can order me around. Truthfully, though, he was grateful of something to do. This house gave him the creeps.

* * *

The stew was bubbling merrily when Vincent and Rude left the kitchen. Sephiroth grumpily scraped the off cuts into the bin, then folded his arms as though to signify that this was all. Aeris smiled brightly at him and began to clean off the chopping boards and knives they had used.

"So, do you remember anything yet?" She asked tentatively after a while. Sephiroth shot her a glare.

"Flashes. I remember people in lab coats and injections. And... a voice. She's not with me any more, but I recall... that my mother was with me once." Sephiroth uncrossed his gloved arms and pressed down on the counter, green eyes far away with remembrance. "I know that I know you. You're the flower girl. I just don't know where I know you from." He blinked at a sudden crawling feeling of revulsion.

Aeris shrugged. "Well... I'm sure it will all come back. I'm not sure it would be a good idea to tell you all at once. There's been a lot that's happened to you."

It feels like it, thought Sephiroth. It feels as though I'm very, very old. He didn't reply, though, only staring at the bench top thoughtfully. Cloud's voice interrupted his reverie.

"Aeris, can you come out here a minute?"

Aeris put down the sponge. "Coming!" She called. She started to leave the kitchen, hesitating in front of Sephiroth. "Can you wait? And not eavesdrop, please? I know it must be hard..." She gave him a helpless sort of look. "I'm sorry." She finished abruptly, and left.

Sephiroth's lip curled and he folded his arms again, wracking his brains for any shred of information about his past. He could only retrieve that image of a dark-haired man with glasses and, for a split-second, a pair of frightened, but grateful, emerald eyes. He shook his head angrily. Foolishness.

Without any specific destination in mind, he began to walk through the house. He had only taken a few steps out of the kitchen before Vincent's voice behind him made him pause.

"Do not wander, please. It will make things easier."

"Oh?" Sephiroth inquired, but the red-eyed man would say no more. Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, then leaned casually against the wall. "Keep me amused, then. What happened to your arm?" It had been bugging him for some time. He had a peculiar feeling he should know.

Vincent eyed him coldly for a time. "That is, for now, none of your concern."

Sephiroth snorted and shook his head. "And will it later become my concern? I don't understand you. I don't remember what led to this. I hate it." He said suddenly, emphatically, glaring at the wall opposite him.

Vincent was silent for just long enough, then he broke the awkward conversation with, "Follow me. The soup will be ready." Before he turned away, Sephiroth could have sworn that he had seen a touch of sympathy in the other man, somewhere beneath the icy exterior. The thought was not quite a happy one, but it gave him hope that someone soon was going to tell him just what was going on.

* * *

Reno scowled at the ceiling and tried not to fidget. Strife had had the bright idea that he and Reno could keep watch over Sephiroth and make sure that the guy didn't go crazy and kill everyone. So here Reno was, at something approaching two in the morning, memorising the pattern on the cornices in an effort to stay awake.

Of course, having Sephiroth, Lord of the Psychos, in the bed not five feet from him, sort of erased any want to sleep, so it didn't take that much effort. His gun was cold in his fingers, tucked in beside him like a soft toy. He didn't bother having the safety on any more - he had had to sleep with his gun too much to bother. He was used to its presence. It didn't matter that the guy he was watching sleep this time was Sephiroth

And the bastard wasn't sleeping, either, Reno thought angrily. He was just lying there, staring at the ceiling. If he dared risk the slight luminescence of opening his own eyes, he could see the pale mako glow of Sephiroth's eyes. What the hell was the point of them all lying here not getting any sleep? He hoped Valentine kept a hidden supply of coffee because the Turks had finished most of the obvious supply off, and Reno was sure as hell gonna need it in the morning.

Reno rolled over, letting his back face Sephiroth. He stared at the wall. Beyond it, he knew, slept Elena and Lana. Tifa, Yuffie and Aeris slept in what Reno had come to call the Piano Room. Tifa and Aeris were sleeping on the fold-out couch, but Yuffie, being Yuffie, was sleeping on the window seat. Rude was sleeping upstairs in the same room as Cid and Barret. Reno's mouth twitched briefly into a smirk. He bet Rude had copped an earful, being in the same room as those two old farts. Valentine was, of course, sleeping in his own room, across the corridor from the Piano Room.

Reno huffed out a frustrated sigh, turning his thoughts to Reeve. Shinra had received no communication from whoever had kidnapped him. Reno hadn't had a peep on his beeper. He didn't even know if the Pres was alive or not, let alone where he was. He sighed. After days of research, they had gone through the entire library for related material and read that material over and over, but they had found nothing. It wasn't surprising, really, with all the leads they just did not have. Reno scowled as it occurred to him that this would be the third President to have come to trouble under his protection. Well, he thought, determination a cold trickle in his mind, Third time lucky.

* * *

A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed the last chapter, please continue the favour! )

Demeter, you know me far too well. :grin: And I'm really happy that you're reviewing, because I adore all of your Yuffie snippets. Particularly 'Amour'. Everyone who hasn't already, go read Demeter's pieces, because they're fantastic and I highly recommend them. :)

Next chapter we get back to Reeve... because I've been ignoring him a bit lately, and he does sorta come into this fic a fair bit. ;P I just keep wanting to write about Nibelheim.


	9. The Shiva Imbued

Disclaimer: I don't own Reeve, but I do own Feather and Ayuki and everything else that wasn't in FF7.

A/N: Whew! Sorry this took so long! I thought I'd lost all my data and went into a mild spiral of despair-induced Writer's Block… but then I discovered that clever me had saved it all to her hard drive anyway! So now I'm posting a celebratory chapter. Unfortunately, I did lose the beginning of this chapter… so that's why it's taken so long to get this out, and I'm sorry. Next chapter will be faster – it's already finished. ;)

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter Nine: The Shiva-Imbued

Reeve was walking. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow, but always walking, and with the constant, frustrating feeling that he wasn't getting anywhere. It wasn't just the white that grated on his nerves any more. It was the constant one-point-five meter gap between the bare lines in the steel floor, the soft tap of his cheap, worn-out office shoes and the sharp click of Feather's high heeled boots. It was everything. He hated this place. With vengeful malice that usually didn't rear its head until near the end of an all-night session at the office or the beginning of a new financial year, Reeve's mind concocted excessive plots of the complete and utter destruction of this complex.

Utterly useless, of course, because he had been walking for what felt like days, and he still couldn't find a way out.

Feather trotted behind him, only occasionally lagging behind. It was at these times that Reeve finally realised how exhausted he was, and they would huddle together in the pitch darkness of the complex's nights, both grateful for the warmth the other provided. Feather seemed as irrationally afraid of these periods of darkness as he was. He didn't even know why he was afraid here – the darkness here couldn't be so different to the darkness of his bedroom in Midgar, could it? But here he had no Turks to rely upon, no protection – not even his gun. Not even a lamp or a flashlight, or the reassuring purr of the original flesh-and-blood Cait Sith, the black and white kitten that spent its days knocking things over in his office and its nights curled in the hollow between his neck and his shoulder.

Feather's head rested there during the nights, now.

He wondered how Cait Sith was doing. Surely the Turks would have found him and given him food… but he couldn't remember what had happened to the kitten when Ayuki had first attacked him. He felt a cold chill of fear every time he thought of it. Cait had been his only companion in his years among the Shinra. He really, really hoped that his cat was okay.

Feather was slowing again, and he turned to face her. "What's the matter?"

She shrugged. "I… this isn't doing any good. What are you looking for?"

"A way out. I told you." Reeve said. "If we can find a way out-"

"There is no way out. There are only ways in. _I've_ told you." It seemed to Reeve that companionship was good for Feather. She had lost her dreamy method of speech, and was gaining a more human personality than the cool, dreamy atmosphere that had clouded her speech previously. Unfortunately, this also brought human traits like annoyance to the surface. "There are only ways _into_ this place, and they don't go both ways."

Reeve frowned. "Well, why don't you show me to the entries, then. I can decide for myself if they're impossible to get out of."

Feather sighed out a loud huff of air that made the wisps of hair that hung down into her face fly out in front of her. "Fine. It's this way." She clicked away down a corridor. Reeve followed her wearily.

"How can you even tell the difference between the corridors?" He asked after a while. Feather turned around to face him, walking backwards and tracing long, slim fingers along the walls.

"I… I just know. It's here inside my head. I know where things are, and I know which direction we're headed in, and where we are inside the complex… but where the complex is, I don't know." She shrugged apologetically and turned around to continue walking. "Laurent was the same… but they took him away, and he hasn't come back."

"Laurent?" Reeve wondered aloud.

Feather let out a sad sigh. "I… he was… well…"

"You don't have to talk about it, if you don't want to." Reeve said kindly. Feather nodded, and they walked on in silence until she stopped in front of a dead end.

"Here." She pointed to the wall. Reeve stared at her.

"Um…" He walked forward to touch the wall, but as soon as his fingertips brushed it, the wall slid upward and Reeve stared, walking forward through the doorway that had appeared. Feather followed him, clinging nervously.

The room was immense, bigger than he had expected. It made him wonder just how big this place looked from the outside. The ceiling was wide and high, slanting up towards a rectangular hole in the roof. He squinted, and thought he saw ropes and pulleys. So it was a docking bay for an airship. _Not an airship as large as the Highwind, though._

The floor was metal grating, revealing the angry shifting of the tides below it. The combination of icy water below and cold air from above made the blood in Reeve's hand turn to ice. He curled his hands into fists and walked out onto the metal grating, frowning at the stairs that led down into the water. There were two, one on either side of a relatively small area of water. _A… a submarine docking bay?_ He wondered, glancing down. It certainly looked like it. He glanced around the rest of the room. Stacks of old wooden crates were piled haphazardly at intervals around the immense room.

Feather grabbed his arm and pointed. He peered after the line of her finger and smiled with triumph for the first time in days. The items that had vanished when he had come to this place were sitting on top of one of the crates over to the left of where they had entered. Reeve walked closer, identifying each of his possessions – watch, screwdriver set, hand gun, PHS. Feather grabbed his arm and shook her head.

"Don't trust it. Don't trust Them." She said firmly.

Reeve looked around the area carefully. If someone had set a trap, they had done it well. He could see nothing wrong with the surrounding area. And either way, so far he had nothing to lose. Nevertheless, as he approached the crates, he tested the metal grating beneath his feet, just in case one of them would send him crashing into the icy water below. When he reached the crates, he looked down at himself sheepishly. How paranoid had being President of Neo-Shinra made him? He looked at his things, storing them carefully in his jacket pockets, on his belt and, in the case of his watch, on his wrist.

Feather shifted from foot to foot as she watched him, glancing around nervously. Someone was here and she knew it. Reeve beckoned her forward. "I need you to hold the flashlight while I fix this." He held up his PHS so that she could see it. "There's light enough to see by in here, but I need more light to see inside the thing."

He handed her his newly found flashlight and showed her how to turn it on. Sitting down on the grating, he pulled out his beloved screwdriver set and got to work, tightening and loosening and reattaching where he saw fit. It took a total of about ten minutes for him to patch up the machine, and Feather was becoming more nervous by the second.

"Reeve... Reeve, we need to get out of here..." She whispered piteously. "I'm afraid."

Reeve looked up at her sympathetically. "We can leave now. I'll call my friends while we walk. I'm not sure there's a strong enough signal here."

Feather started to walk quickly back the way they had come, but to Reeve's surprise there was someone standing in the doorway. The figure, silhouetted by the bright white of the corridor, walked toward them, her sensible shoes making a bare tapping sound on the grating. Reeve stared. "Doctor Ayuki?"

She laughed, shaking her head slightly. "Mr President. You took your time getting here. I was wondering if we would ever see you again."

Feather ran back towards Reeve, clinging to his arm in fright. Reeve quite agreed - something was wrong with the woman in the lab coat, and he didn't like it at all. Ayuki brought her hands up before her, crossed them, and pushed both palms up above her head as though she was stretching. Her smile was a cruel, jagged line. "I hope you've enjoyed your stay, Mr President." A smoky apparition rose from her arms, glowing an unearthly blue. Reeve stared at it nervously, not knowing what to expect. The glow formed swiftly into a human figure, and Reeve blinked.

"What the... Shiva?"

Ayuki was fading as the smoky Shiva became more prominent, but her smile remained. "That's right, Mr President. I see you've done your research. Don't let Diamond Dust cool your search for knowledge!"

Reeve twisted. "Run!" He started to flee, but Feather wasn't moving. She looked bolder than she had only moments ago, angry. Reeve tried to get her out of the way, but she jerked her arm from his grasp roughly. He turned around to stare as Shiva's arms lifted to the heavens to summon her icy attack.

Reeve's hand went to his jacket, not for his gun, but for his PHS. He was dialling before he knew what he was doing. _Pickuppickuppickup_ He barely heard Reno's voice before he started shouting down the PHS. "Reno, get Elena on my coordinates _right now_. I'm somewhere cold, and I'm in trouble. Get here as soon as possible. The best way is probably by sub." He heard a garbled, _Sir!_ from Reno, and a curt order not to hang up. Reeve shoved the PHS back into his jacket as twin screams erupted from Feather and Ayuki. Feather's arms formed a protective cross before her, Ayuki's still stretched out as a propellant for her attack. But the smoky Shiva was struggling, an icy mist tendril spreading slowly towards Feather, seeping down below the grating to freeze the waves solid, and clouding around Ayuki.

"Shiva!" Ayuki cried, spurring the summon on, and "Back!" Feather ordered, both their voices warped with the power that the ice goddess was exuding. There was a flash of light that made Reeve's eyes water, and he staggered backward, shielding them with his arms.

When his vision cleared, he could see a great chunk of ice surrounded by frosted metal. Feather was sprawled on the grating, her eyes squeezed shut and her mouth slightly open, her expression one of pain. Reeve lunged forward, dragging her up off the metal and checking frantically for a pulse. He relaxed only very marginally when he found one. "Feather, are you all right? What's wrong?"

Weakly, she opened hazy green eyes and lifted her hand to let the feather brush his cheek. "She... she stole what was mine..." She sounded hurt and angry. "I couldn't get her back."

Reeve didn't pretend to understand. "Feather, we have to get to an outside wall so that my friends can rescue us. It isn't safe here, and..." He looked at the ice that now covered the submarine dock. "We have to get to the edge of this place. Do you know the way?"

Feather nodded tiredly. "Yes... but... she isn't dead. I can't fight her again." Reeve looked down at the girl in his arms. He knew what he could do to Ayuki. He still had four bullets left. But he also knew that he did not want to have to kill someone in cold blood. He couldn't. No matter how long he had been employed under Shinra, he knew that he could not do that. He sighed.

"Can you walk?"

She stared dazedly for a moment, considering, and then said, "Not quickly."

Reeve stood carefully, still supporting her as she swayed unsteadily. "All right. Climb on my back. You can give directions as we go."

Once Feather was on his back, thin arms curled weakly around his neck, Reeve began to walk. He was barely weighed down by the girl, who seemed no more substantial than air, but nevertheless he felt the strain from the speed of his pace. He didn't care. He wanted to get as far away from Ayuki as possible.

A/N: Okay, short chapter. Cunno. You'll get more soon, I promise. Particularly if you review. Reviews spark more enthusiasm to write. ;P So please leave me your comments.


	10. Third Time Lucky

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from FFVII. Because that would make me rich and a genius, and I'm certainly not either of those.

A/N: This chapter – Turks, icebergs and submarine fun. And an itty bitty Yuffentine. There's no real reason for their conversation to be in Wutaian except that I wanted to practise. You can find a 'Wutaian' translator at in the section for FFX, then Al Bhed Translator. FFNet doesn't like URLs. ;

Side note: I cannot believe my spell check recognises 'goober' but not 'Vinnie'. Sigh. Sometimes I wonder about Microsoft.

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter Ten: Third Time Lucky

Sephiroth rose with the sun, feeling slightly annoyed at the fact that he had not slept. If Cloud and Reno distrusted him, he distrusted them tenfold out of some bizarre but probably accurate instinct that people with spiky hair were bad for him. Yuffie jumped as he ghosted through the room. She had been staring out the large window with her knees drawn up to her chest. She shot him a startled look as he entered, smiled nervously as he walked past in silence. Sephiroth ignored her. He held no interest in children.

Yuffie turned back to the window, grey eyes as mournful and joyless as the overcast skies on the other side of the stained glass. Fixing the clouded orbs onto their replicas in the sky, she directed a brief, childish plea to Leviathan. Help me find my Daddy. I feel like I don't have much time. She searched the clouds hopefully for a sign, then chided herself for foolishness. Leviathan was a busy god.

And no wonder, she thought suddenly. Storms had been building for days and days… nearly three weeks, by her count, and she paid Leviathan fairly close attention. It was very strange behaviour. She wondered what had caused it as she turned the cracked materia in her hands.

Yuffie sensed a shifting behind her and glanced back with a start, dropping the broken red orb she had been holding. Vincent stood in the doorway, bereft of cloak and bandanna, looking uncomfortably as though he felt he was intruding. He looked as though he had been caught doing something wrong, and his gaze skipped over her to look at the window. Yuffie gave him a tiny wave and a smile.

"Are you the only one awake?" He said lowly, hesitantly. Yuffie stood up and walked lightly across the floorboards to speak softly with him.

"No. Sephiroth got a up a little while ago, but Reno and Cloud are still in there." Vincent gave her a sharp look.

"He should not wander here unattended."

Yuffie let an exasperated sigh hiss between her teeth. "Vinnie, don't be silly. I'm the one who pokes around and gets into trouble, remember? He's probably out there, just sitting and staring at stuff." It struck her then just how alike Vincent and Sephiroth were… both quiet, dark and slightly sad, with more than a tinge of the macabre and psychotic. "If you're so worried, I'll come out and check on him with you. Ya big baby." She added teasingly. "Look at you. You're, like, worried he's gonna smash your teacups or something?"

Vincent's face was perfectly straight. "Actually, I am quite fond of my teacups." Yuffie snickered as she followed him down the hall, wondering if he realised just how weird that had sounded coming from him. They both paused to peer around the corner into the living room. Yuffie stepped out first.

"Ah hah! Don't move! Just as I suspected!" Yuffie turned to Vincent. "You big goober. He's starting a fire for us. Warming the house up for us, since Nibelheim is frickin' freezing. See?" She rolled her eyes at Vincent. "Come help me make coffee." She bounced away, and Vincent followed her into the kitchen.

Yuffie's plan for coffee was soon thwarted by the fact that Vincent didn't seem to have any left. Vincent stared in disbelief at the empty canister, which was approximately the size of a can of paint, and muttered, "Turks…" under his breath. Yuffie laughed.

"I guess they like their coffee. Do you have tea?"

Vincent gestured to another canister on the bench. "You are the only one that will like it, with the possible exceptions of Rude and Sephiroth."

Yuffie raised an eyebrow. "Catering for the general public, I see." She opened the canister and her eyes lit up as she inhaled the sweet scent. "Jasmine tea!" Vincent smiled slightly as she turned to face him, clutching the canister to her chest, her eyes closed, still savouring the scent. "Vinnie, you are my favouritest person in the whole world. I love jasmine tea."

Vincent opened a cupboard and pulled out not mugs, but two beautiful Wutaian tea bowls. Yuffie's eyes shone as she stared at them avidly. "They're really beautiful, Vinnie. I didn't know you liked Wutaian things. You didn't seem to like Wutai when we were there."

Vincent calmly filled the teapot with boiling water and held it out so that Yuffie could add the tea leaves to it. "Could that have been a side effect of having my materia stolen?" He asked, not unkindly. Yuffie had the grace to blush.

"Maybe." She said grudgingly, with as much dignity as she could muster. Vincent found his mouth tugging to the side in a smile, and wondered at it. He looked at his empty coffee canister.

"I should buy some more coffee today, I suppose."

Yuffie cupped her tea bowl in her hands as she scoffed. "Who needs that nasty stuff when you have this? Screw the Turks, Vinnie. Jasmine tea is _it_." She took a mouthful and squeezed her eyes shut comically as it scalded her tongue. She head a snort, and Vincent's level voice remarked,

"Hot?"

She swallowed. "Really? Do you think? Eteud."

He shook his head. "Oui lyh'd zicd lymm sa yh eteud. E lyh ihtancdyht oui, oui ghuf."

"E ghuf. Dryd fyc dra etay." Yuffie told him lightly. She picked up her bowl and walked past him on her way from the kitchen. Vincent remained, picked up his bowl.

"Oui yna ehcovvanypma."

She winked at him, showing every tooth in a grin. "Dryhgoui. Oui'na funca drah ehcovvanypma. Oui'na y..." She trailed off, trying to find a good enough insult, and surprised herself when she couldn't find one. There just wasn't enough wrong with Vincent to insult him with. She looked at him, and his eyes narrowed with subtle amusement.

"Peddah uvv suha drah oui lyh lraf?" He inquired. "Oui yna duu tadahsehat du feh. Ed dnebc oui."

Caught out, Yuffie resorted to poking her tongue out at him. "Oui ghuf oui muja sa." She flounced out of the kitchen. Vincent sighed as the jasmine perfume of the tea engulfed him. He closed his eyes, thinking almost fondly of his times with AVALANCHE.

"Oui feh."

Reno was still lying in bed. Strife hadn't moved, so he saw no reason to. Besides, Yuffie and Valentine were up and about, so there was no need to panic about Sephiroth. The brat would be the first to start screaming if anything went wrong, and Valentine's freaky monster fom wasn't the quietest thing on the Planet. He closed his eyes, wondering how much he'd be sneered at if he took a quick nap.

He never got the chance.

He rolled over, spitting part of his pony tail out of his mouth, and shifted his gun hand beneath his pillow. Then his PHS went off.

He was too tired to jump in surprise. But his eyes went wide and he vaguely identified Cloud sitting up wearily. Reno had a special tone set to his PHS for the President's use.

It was ringing.

Like a shot he was out of the bed and fumbling with all the useless crap he carried around in his pockets. He got to the PHS and hammered the 'call' button. "Reno." He was hardly breathing as he listened to Reeve's garbled voice, relief welling and easing tense muscles. His mouth processed the call more than his mind did.

"Sir! Don't hang up, I'll get Elena on it." He took the PHS away from his mouth and turned to stare at Cloud. "Jesus fucking Christ."

He was wearing nothing but his pants as he charged through the room where Aeris and Tifa still slept, hammering through the door and bolting down the hallway. Without bothering to knock, he crashed through the door to the room Elena and Lana shared. Elena was only halfway through buttoning her blouse, and she gaped at him for the seconds he was there, not quite awake enough to get angry yet.

"_Elena, Reeve is at the other end of that, don't bother talking, just get me his fucking co-ords._"

And then he was gone again, running through the living room and up the annoyingly curved stairs. "_RUDE!_"

Before Cid was even out of bed, Reno had sent Rude and Elena to the Highwind. Elena had piled Rude high with cables, warning him not to drop them on pain of death. Lana, Cloud, Cid and Barret had dogged Reno's heels as he explained the phone call hastily, pulling on his shirt and jacket and clipping things onto his belt.

"Reeve's somewhere cold, Elena's finding him, I'm gonna need a blanket and a lift to Junon, he said to come by sub." Reno said in one breath. As Cloud opened his mouth, he started again. "The Turks will handle this, Strife, a sub ain't big enough to fit in all of us, and there's aren't enough to spare just on my say so." He was pulling on shoes.

"Barret, find Vincent and get some blankets. Cid, you'll have to take them to Junon. Can you pilot a sub?"

Cid snorted. "Kid, if you could do it, so could a half-blind Chocobo."

Lana interrupted. "They updated the subs after you stole one. Only Shinra can make 'em move, and only _trained_ Shinra can move 'em right." She looked to Reno. "I'll go with you. I trained on them - hell, I trained half the goddamn cadets."

Barret reappeared and tossed a blanket at Reno. Reno stared at Lana hard for a few seconds, meeting her pale garnet eyes. "You got two minutes. Meet me at the door. Bring your weapons, we could have a fight on our hands."

"Duh, sir." Lana was already gone. She had met him at the door one minute and thirty-seven seconds later and run with him and Cid to the Highwind in another minute, Cid wheezing and belly-aching the entire way.

And now they were in Junon, Reno flashing his security pass every twenty seconds as they worked their way down to the submarine docking bay. Elena screeched occasional abuse at the foolish guards who bumped her delicate laptop as she carried it and its requisite wires through the corridors. Rude walked patiently beside her, holding the PHS and some cables as still as he could manage, while Elena typed frenziedly with her free hand.

When they reached the docking bay, Lana glanced around and pointed. "The blue one." She strode up to one of its guards. "Is it running?"

"Works fine. Security clearing?"

She looked to Reno, who held up his wallet. "Outta the way." The guards saluted, stepping away from the ladder with hasty respect.

"Have a nice trip, sir."

Despite the situation, Lana had to remind herself not to squeal or giggle as she sat down in the pilot's seat. This was one of the beautiful new subs, fast, sleek and heavily armed. She glanced back. "Everyone take a seat, or hold onto something. Elena, make sure that thing doesn't take any nasty bumps."

She needn't even have bothered warning them. The sub moved from its position with little more than a soft 'clunk'. Lana decided she wanted one, and refrained from stroking the control panel. "Where do I head?"

Elena squinted at her screen. "North. It's about halfway between the westernmost shore of the north continent and the northern shore of the main continent. That's all I can refine for now." She spent a few minutes typing as Lana steered them into the open ocean and northward.

Elena demanded silence for the next ten minutes as she worked, then grinned triumphantly and stretched. "Got a satellite image of it. Big plaster place. Reeve's headed toward the south-east corner, by the looks of it." She plucked the PHS from Rude's hands and held it under her ear with her chin as she searched for more information. "Reeve? Reeve? Sir, are you there?"

There was a long pause before she heard Reeve's voice, faintly. "Hello, hello?"

"Elena here, sir. Anything you can tell us about the inside of the place you're in?" She tossed Rude a pair of cables and pointed to a switchboard on the control panel. "Green and orange."

There was a burst of static. Reeve's voice, still faint, now emanated from the speakers. "It's big and white." A scuffle. "Feather, they can't hear me properly. I need it closer to my mouth, okay?" His voice because suddenly much clearer. "Okay, it's really very large. Dozens of corridors. It's like a maze in here, but Feather seems to know her way around. Um. I don't know much, but we ran into Professor Ayuki - whom I'm going to _fire_ as soon as I get the chance - she's calling herself the Shiva-Imbued."

Reno glanced at Rude. "Ayuki again." He muttered. Louder, he said, "Sir, I don't know when we'll get there, but-"

"Two hours, give or take." Elena supplied quickly.

"-it's very important that if we get cut off, you stay exactly where you are, so we can find you based on your previous co-ordinates."

"Sure." Reeve agreed. "I'll do what I can. Ah, Reno... you'll need to blast a wall, I think. There's a docking bay for subs, but Ayuki froze it over. You'll have to tell me if you want me to go back there. It takes a while to get around; Feather can't walk too well just now."

Rude cleared his throat. Reno, who had been about to speak, closed his mouth. "President... who is Feather?"

Reeve's voice was slow. "Uh, she was a prisoner here. I found her. She... doesn't remember too much about herself, but when we were being attacked, Ayuki summoned Shiva. And then Feather dismissed it, I suppose. I don't know what that means, but..." He trailed off uncertainly. Reno crossed his arms.

"All right, sir. Keep your PHS hooked up, and talk to us if we can do anything."

"When you get me out of here, a coffee and a really hot, disgustingly cheesy pizza." Reeve said immediately with a slight laugh. "I'm starved, and I'm freezing. Can't wait 'til you get here."

Reno smirked as he heard the PHS being stuffed away again. _The guy's crazy. How 'bout I just pull a pizza outta my ass?_ He walked over behind Lana and applied pressure on her nanchaku until she looked around at him. "What?"

"This thing has a weapon, right?"

Her magenta eyes gleamed, and she let out a slightly love-sick sigh. "Oh, I was _hoping_ you'd ask me that..." She pointed to a sliding chair attached to the sub via a groove in the floor. "Pull that over here, and I'll give you a crash course in driving."

"Driving?" Reno raised his eyebrows. "I was talkin' about a weapon, Meltzer."

Lana smiled. "I was talking about a weapon, too, Reno. You get to play with the steering wheel like a good little boy while mommy kicks some ass with it."

A/N: I thought that was long enough for a chapter. Stay tuned for the next chapter... "Sephiroth's Secrets"!

...heh heh heh. Sounds like a lingerie store. lame


	11. Sephiroth's Secrets

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone or anything from Final Fantasy VII, but I do own everything you haven't seen in that. This includes, but is not limited to, the storyline, Lana Meltzer, the Chocobo- and Shiva-Imbued, and Feather.

A/N: The eleventh chapter. In which we return to Nibelheim specifically for the purpose of making Sephiroth feel bad. ;

UPDATE: Ugh, the original version of this was just pathetic, so I'm reposting with something approaching quality here. Sorry to those of you who had to suffer through the original, and thanks to Shizamaru, who pointed it out to me.

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter Eleven: Sephiroth's Secrets

_But if you run and hide, you'll lose my soul_

_When it's time to cross the tide I'll be lost in the flow_

_When the truth won't happen, please don't try to run_

_Or the world we're shaping will fall from the skies_

_I'll take your happy fall and linger as time goes on_

_Solitary motion will lead to despair_

_Fortunes in bleeding will bring souls to bear_

_And if it's hoping, I'm hoping too much_

_It's not the solution to live on mistrust_

-- George, "Run"

He still sat, staring at the flames absently. One hand tugged boredly at his long silver fringe, twisting the freshly combed strands. The house was always quiet, but it seemed more so now, after the morning's rush to rescue Reeve. He remembered a Reeve, vaguely. A young man, slightly older than himself, at a cocktail party. A new employee. A technical genius with a soft spot for charity. Sephiroth's brows pulled together as he tried to recall more, but failed. He sighed, a soft, mournful sound, and looked up to the stained glass window that framed the landing above the stairs. _You, glass angel, you know more of your mind than I do of mine._

After the Turks and the powerfully built black woman had left with the old pilot, Cloud, Tifa, Vincent and Red XIII had gone into the basement, presumably to continue their research. The cat robot he had seen down there yesterday, he had not seen since. He had no idea where Yuffie had gone. Perhaps she, too, had gone down to the catacombs below the mansion. He listened intently. It was more likely that it was she singing in the shower, in what he determined was purposefully off-key.

As he listened to Yuffie's boisterous rendition of gods knew what, he became aware of raised voices down the hall, one male and one female. He frowned and got slowly to his feet. _Is that the flower girl? Shouting? How strange._ As he walked closer to the argument, the words through the walls became clearer. Aeris was arguing with Barret, and the black man did not sound pleased in the least.

"So, you is jes' bein' nice to him because the Planet needs him?"

"No!" Aeris sounded shocked, and furious. "Barret, the Planet may need him, but he needs someone to be-"

"All he needs is a bullet in th' head!" Sephiroth's nose wrinkled at Barret's words. _Charming._

"Barret, you're being-"

"Aeris, he _killed_ you. We all saw that Masamune sticking out yer stomach."

And suddenly the situation wasn't amusing any more. Sephiroth's eyes widened as he sagged against a wall with a loud gasp. _Killed her? The Masamune... only I can... no. No. By each and every god, No!_

A thousand needles pierced him. Strapped as he was against the operating table, its biting cold made the stinging pain of the needles seem even more pronounced. His breath came in quick, frightened pants as he watched the looming silhouettes above him with trepidation. He did not trust the doctors, not at all. He had never trusted them. They had never given him reason to, with their scalpels and stitching and shock and endurance tests. But no matter how little hope they gave him, he still held out that one day one of them would succumb to the pleading green stare and feel some remorse for their actions against the small boy.  
Why are you doing this to me?  
A silhouette vanished from his sight and reappeared brandishing anaesthetic, and he started to squirm.  
I won't let you do this to me any more!  
I won't let you!  
Let me go!  
Tseng!  
The childish bawl for a man who never came, who had promised to be there and never returned. Hot tears of terror and pain that seared his sensitive skin.  
Tseng... help me...  
Sharp pain in his arm as the doctor applied the anaesthetic, and the world began to blur around its edges. Sephiroth tried to speak again, to beg them to leave him be, but he was dizzy and tired. He wasn't sure what he had been talking about. Had he even been speaking? A last coherent thought worked its way to the upper levels of his mind: at least this time, though he was freezing and terrified as ever he was, they had waited for the anaesthetic to take effect.

Flames. The screaming had ceased long ago, but the flames still towered around him, an inferno that had once been a beautiful, secluded mountain village.  
He looked down. A tiny human hand protruded from the collapsed, smoking ruins of the building, the gaps between its fingers clotted with ash. Clutched between the rigid fingers, a stuffed Chocobo, 'Wark' stitched into the felt harness about its beak. Wark the Chocobo would never be held to the child's breast again, never clung to on long, nightmare-filled nights. He felt a twinge of sadness.  
Pathetic creatures. You do well by them, to destroy them like this.  
The thought was not his, nor did it agree with his thoughts on the matter. But as he considered the words, he found that all other thoughts fled his mind. He felt his mouth tug to the side in a smirk at the absurd rightness of it all. He looked up again, through the flames and floating ash, to lock eyes with the horrified SOLDIER. That smirk still graced his features as he turned away in a smooth motion, daring the pitch haired man to follow. He could hear unnatural, joyful laughter echoing in his head, and the mournful stare of Wark as he wove through the flames.  
I'm coming, Mother. We can talk... face to face.

The suited man spun, black hair flying out behind him, as though a sudden unearthly knowledge had awakened in him. But too slow. Not caring for grace, Sephiroth let out an incoherent cry and charged. A wave of long-suppressed hurt and betrayal lent him strength, and he struck the man roughly with the Masamune, a stab and a wrenching twist of his wrist.

Die slowly for what you did to me.

And he was tired, and Mother was an approving murmur that comforted his mind not at all. It insisted upon informing him that Tseng, his friend, had been flung roughly backwards into the altar with the force of the attack, and was bleeding all over the pedestal. Sephiroth felt the lump form in the back of his throat, but Mother wouldn't let the tears come.

You promised that you would return.

Dark eyes softened. Tseng understood. Even as he struggled to draw breath and keep pressure upon his wound, he understood. It was more than Sephiroth could bear. He turned away and began the process of leaving, coldly and impassively.

I know. I am sorry.

That was it. Sephiroth knew he had closed his eyes, to concentrate upon his breathing. He could hear the ragged breaths as he walked away. Far away, where he wouldn't have to deal with the lump in his throat any more. And eventually, they stopped, and there was horrible angry silence that promised to make it hurt. Forever.

And Mother still wouldn't let him cry.

His hands, gloved in darkness, gripped the hilt of the Masamune. A soft gasp had startled from her lips as the blade had slid through her. There were no jagged edges. He had been certain not to make any. It was a clean wound.

Make the Cetra bitch suffer.

His arms jerked it out of her roughly, sweeping so that it severed her spine. The spray of her blood misted his vision, ran down the lifted blade onto his hands.

She fell, and with her fell Mother's laughter, but not his tears, oh no. Aeris fell, and so did the lids of her emerald green eyes, and the black mist that covered all of his memories, sooner or later.

But her blood would not fall from his hands. Gods, the blood wouldn't fall from his hands!

Aeris stepped into the corridor to see him crumpled there, his hands clawing at each other, his eyes wide and unseeing with horror. She dropped beside him, grabbing him by an iron-plated shoulder and shaking, "...Sephiroth! Sephiroth!"

His eyes did not focus on anything around him. He made strangled sounds in his throat, as if he fought to breathe. Aeris shook him frantically, her voice getting higher, as Barret watched, angry righteousness seeping from him. He didn't know what to do.

"Sephiroth!"

She watched in mute horror as runnels of tears left long unshed began to pour from his eyes. The hitch of his breath was the attempt to breathe past the tears, past the sorrow. Finally she knew that he was here, but the only things she felt in him were pain and horrible guilt.

"Sephiroth?" She asked him apprehensively. He did not turn his head to look at her, he didn't dare. He shuddered horribly at the vivid memory of the warmth of her blood through his gloves.

"I… I killed you."

Aeris' eyes widened. She had no answer for that. Sephiroth's head bowed forward, his tears stilling as abruptly as they had welled, his breathing even once more. He stood as swiftly as ever he had, his eyes showing nothing, his face even less. Aeris stood carefully, cautiously so as not to provoke him. She backed slowly towards Barret.

But Sephiroth showed no inclination to attack. As they watched, he moved silently away, wraithlike in the house of memories. Alone again. Aeris' tears burned her eyes. She thumped Barret's chest angrily with one hand, and then stormed angrily away past him. Barret looked regretfully after Aeris, then Sephiroth, and could not muster even a sigh. _Me and my big goddamn mouth._

Sephiroth's soft footsteps echoed in his ears like his heartbeat as he wandered the house, aimless in his thoughts. He could remember it all, now. Every scream, every death at his hands. He tried to tell himself that it was not all bad, that some of the memories were quite pleasant. Talking to Zack. Talking to Tseng. His treatment as General of the Shinra Army had been luxury upon luxury.

But no matter how pleasant, all the memories burned him. He gritted his teeth against them. He had been so long without them, and now they each clamoured for his attention, tugging at both mind and heart and multiplying both confusing and pain a thousand fold.

The house, too, called to him. It was not as strong, but just as insistent, and he knew that deep within there lurked secrets that no one had yet discovered. Professor Hojo had been most efficient in the keeping of his secrets. Cloud and his friends knew only of the main lab. But Sephiroth knew of more. Oh, so many more, with so much more to offer to AVALANCHE than simply reports on escaped specimens. He knew that they were below, somewhere, in the labs that only Hojo had known of.

His feet had carried him to the bookcase. It had been slid around, slid open in the curved track in the stone. Sephiroth pulled it closed again. He pushed at it, sliding it back in tracks that Cloud hadn't known of, that hadn't been used in decades.

Or shouldn't have been. The bookcase slid back onto the second rail with more ease than Sephiroth had expected of it, and then spun easily on its painstakingly designed tracks to settle across the top of the spiraling wooden stairs.

He looked down the dark passage and the stairs that angled steeply downwards, off at right angles to the usual passage. If he could do nothing else, he could show them this. It was the least he could do. The very least.

He glanced at the thick dust on the stone slab. Tenatively, as though the stone would bite, he reached out and traced a finger over it. A message for whoever found this first.

And if they did not follow him? If the passage was closed before they saw the message?

Well, then he deserved to remain down here. He stepped blindly onto the steps and vanished into the darkness.

Yuffie ran a hand through her damp hair as she walked past the stained glass window. She frowned as she looked down at the living room. Sephiroth hadn't moved all morning, but he was gone now. _Maybe Aeris took him out somewhere to keep him occupied?_ She shrugged to herself as she walked along the corridor. "Oh well. I guess I'll go down and help with the reading, if I don't have to keep an eye on him."

She stopped dead as she reached the doorway of the small room with the secret passage, grey eyes flying uncommonly wide, even for her. "Leviathan!" She cried, shocked. Where she was accustomed to seeing the bookcase was an alcove, and on the left, a gaping black hole. There was no sign of the bookshelf, only the dusty back of some slab of the wall. It looked as though someone had poked a brick so that it lay half in and half out of a wall. And there, engraved in the dust, was a single word.

**Follow.**

She stared at it, intrigued and horrified for a few moments, before her mind began to work. _Aren't Cloud and Tifa and the others down there? What the hell is going on?_ Her heart started to beat quickly as she ran her hands over the slab, ignoring the message in the dust and the passage on her left for now. "Cloud? Cloud!" She took a few steps back and tugged on the great stone slab that usually opened the passage, and heard nothing but the hollow 'click' of a gun when it had nothing left to shoot. "Cloud! TIFA! _Hey!_" She kicked the bookcase angrily, starting to panic just a little. She ran back out of the room to get help from the only other person she knew was in the house. "BARRET!"

Red XIII ceased his voracious reading for a moment. "...Did you hear that?"

Tifa looked puzzled. "I didn't hear anything, Red." The fire cat's tail twitched, and he removed his paw from the page he had been reading.

"I heard something before… Vincent. Can you hear anything?"

The ruby-eyed man closed his eyes and considered. A frown tugged at his mouth. "...I can. It's very faint. It sounds like..." His eyes opened suddenly. "Yuffie?"

Red's hackles rose, making his mane stand on end. "It sounds as though she is in trouble!" He said, ears twitching. "Come!"

Tifa called to Cloud as the lion-like creature and Vincent loped out the door towards the staircase. "Cloud! Cait! Vincent and Red heard something."

The robotic cat came out, preceding Cloud. "Oh yeah? What's up?"

Tifa shrugged. "I don't know. Let's go check it out."

Cloud frowned as he followed her to the door and to the bottom of the stairs. "Is it me, or does it seem darker in here than it was before?"

"It is not only you." Vincent's voice echoed down from above, making them jump. They saw his eyes like red pinpoints in the darkness above, lightened only by the orange glow of Red's tail. "The bookcase has been spun, so that it completely seals the top section of the stairs."

Tifa gasped. "Can you move it, Vincent?" She started to climb the stairs, Cloud hot on her heels. Vincent's reply was not reassuring.

"No. Yuffie seems to have discovered that something is wrong, however. She was yelling, before."

"It may be that they are in some sort of trouble." Red rumbled. "I can hear somebody coming."

From the other side of the bookcase, they heard Barret swearing, and Yuffie saying, "See? What the hell is going on?"

Tifa sidled past Vincent carefully and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Yuffie! Barret! Can you hear me?"

"Tifa!" Aeris was there, too. "Are you all right?"

Vincent calmly jumped the distance to the other side of the stairs, landing lightly on one of the wood blocks jutting out from the wall and allowing Cloud to stand near the bookcase. "We're fine, Aeris, but we can't get out. What happened?"

Aeris sounded distraught. "Sephiroth found out about... what happened. He was... pretty upset."

Cloud's face became hard in an instant, and though he couldn't be seen in the darkness, Tifa felt the warmth of his anger as though from a fire. "Did he hurt anyone? Are you all okay?"

"We're fine." Aeris was quick to reassure him. "But I think he pushed the bookcase aside like this. There's... another passage, down to the left. I've never seen it before."

"There was a message there, too, before I brushed it all off trying to get the thing to move. It said 'follow'." Yuffie supplied helpfully.

Cloud glanced at Vincent, and saw the red pinpoints move from side to side. "I have seen no such passage." He replied curtly. Cloud nodded and frowned, thinking.

"Aeris? I don't want anyone to go down there just yet. It will be safer if there are more of us. Yuffie and Barret, can you pull the bookshelf back to where it was?"

"Think so, Spike. You'd all better stand back just in case it breaks somethin'."

Those that were stuck in the stairwell sidled down the stairs again. Cait Sith shook his megaphone at them as they forced him to manoeuvre the mog backwards down curved stairs. There was a slight scuffling sound and Yuffie said, loudly,

"Move it or lose it, pops!"

They could hear grunts of effort from the other side. At any other time, Tifa might have found it amusing. Now she was feeling slightly claustrophobic. "Is it moving?" She queried loudly.

"It won't move straight back, I told you. Can we slide it? It normally slides." Yuffie's sensible suggestion obviously took Barret by surprise, because he tired it without comment or complaint.

The grate of stone against stone made Tifa shudder as the bookcase was pulled back into place. There was a clunk. She held her breath, but nothing. "…Barret? Yuffie? Aeris?"

"It's not back to where it was… try pulling again." Yuffie muttered. There was a louder grating sound, and a click, and then light streamed into the staircase as they spun it aside. Tifa dashed out, taking a deep breath of fresh air. Yuffie gave her the victory sign. "No problem for the great Yuffie."

Tifa grinned at her gratefully as Vincent and Cait Sith stepped from the darkness of the stairwell. Vincent looked around him, trying to decide who to ask, and settled on Yuffie.

"Where is Sephiroth?"

Barret looked severely uncomfortable. "Er... Aeris an' I were talkin'... and he, uh, overheard us..."

Aeris shook her head in exasperation. "It doesn't matter what happened now. I think Sephiroth went down that other passage. We should go and find him!"

Vincent cleared his throat, and his companions looked at him. "We do not know what lies down this passage... we should not venture into the darkness unarmed."

Tifa flexed her fingers. "Barret, Cait and I can go down now while the rest of you get your things together. I don't need the Premium Heart to cause damage."

Barret nodded, loading his grafted arm with a muffled click. Cait Sith jumped up and down enthusiastically. "Okay! Let's go, guys!" They took positions to open the passage again, following Barret's direction.

Yuffie darted down the halls and leapt over the banister instead of taking the time to descend the steps like a normal person. Vincent followed her example, landing lightly and using the momentum to give him speed as he caught up with the ninja and swung around the corner into his bedroom to collect the Death Penalty. Ninja and gunman raced each other along the corridor, both throwing themselves to slide along the walls in order to avoid Cloud and Aeris, who were lagging behind.

"We'll go down, and you can come down after us." Yuffie called back as she concentrated, despite the inappropriate timing, on beating Vincent to the bookcase. They both vaulted to the first landing, and took the rest of the stairs two at a time. Vincent glanced at her as she slid around the corner beside him.

"Impressive, Kisaragi."

She flashed a grin at him and slowed abruptly to stretch briefly. "Ready to go?" Vincent responded by walking first into the gloom. Yuffie rolled her eyes. "Whatever happened to 'ladies first'?"

Vincent didn't reply, so she followed him silently down the stairs. She wasn't really displeased that he'd gone first. He could see better than her, and if she tripped over, she'd rather land on Vincent than roll down a flight of jagged stone steps. The thought stirred warmth in her belly, despite the situation.

It was a much longer staircase than she was expecting, and completely encased in stone. She frowned at the click of Vincent's boots on the granite. If there were any monsters lurking around here, they'd hear him coming all too easily. She heard Aeris' voice faintly as they arrived at the top of the stairs, blocking out the little light that had been filtering down the passage. Yuffie focussed all of her senses on the blackness ahead. She didn't like this darkness. It seemed to cling, disorienting her. The clicking of Vincent's feet ceased as he reached the bottom of the stairs, and Yuffie nearly twisted her ankle as she tried to step down when there were no more steps. She gave a hissing gasp as she struggled to maintain her balance, and nearly collided with Vincent, who had halted a bare yard from the bottom of the stairs. She heard him turn to face her, and she saw his dimly glowing eyes.

"Can you see?" He asked, his voice barely audible even in the silence. Yuffie shook her head once.

"Not yet." She whispered back.

The eerie blood-light of his eyes bobbed once in a nod. She closed her eyes, listening intently, and when she opened them again she could see Vincent's silhouette standing in a dark stone corridor. Cobwebs and dust clung to the roughly hewn walls, muffling their footsteps but also muffling the approach of Cloud and Aeris behind them. Yuffie nodded when she felt she could see well enough and Vincent moved off again. Though the walls were rough, the floor was perfectly smooth. Yuffie frowned at a reddish glow up ahead.

"Nanaki's tail." Vincent's murmur identified it for her before she had opened her mouth to ask the question. The glow shifted, and the glint of Red's good eye turned on them.

"There are three passages." He informed them. "It's an intersection. Tifa wanted to wait for you, Cloud." He raised his gruff voice slightly to reach the swordsman, who had just stepped into the dim circle of light cast by Red's tail. Aeris stood behind him.

Cloud's eyes illuminated part of his fringe. "Eight and three. Let's have two parties of three and one of two." His eyes flicked to Vincent's. "Vincent. You and Yuffie work best on your own. I'll go with Aeris and Barret. Tifa, you're with Red XIII and Cait Sith."

"Yes boss." Cait chimed. The mog let out a spontaneous burst of carnival music. "Pick a tunnel, any tunnel!"

Tifa's voice rang in the passage. "We'll go left."

Barret said, "I call straight ahead."

There was a pause. "Oh gawds, how do I choose?" said Yuffie in a pained voice. Nervous laughter. Without further talk, they split up into their groups and started walking. Yuffie walked beside Vincent, one hand hovering near his shoulder. Red's tail had destroyed her vision in the darkness. She stepped cautiously for all that she trusted Vincent, wondering why she was so calm. _I mean, Sephiroth could be about to leap out and skewer me, and Vinnie sure as hell wouldn't care, and -- oh my gawds, was that a cockroach?_

"Hey, Vinnie, if Sephy stuck me with the Masamune, how much do you think I'd bleed?"

Vincent didn't speak for a while, and she thought he had dismissed her question as foolishness. She brushed the leg that the roach had scurried over, paranoid. Then, "Do not speak of such things." He said brusquely. Yuffie shrugged.

"Well, make sure my crazy cousin doesn't inherit Wutai, as long as I'm thinking ahead."

Vincent uttered what she thought was a derisive snort, and she jumped as the barrel of the Death Penalty brushed her arm. "There is a door."

"There is?" Yuffie squinted to no effect. "Vinnie, I can't see a damn thing."

"Get behind me." She obeyed as well as she could, grasping the Conformer tightly. She heard the grating of a rusty handle and covered her eyes slightly as blue artificial light flooded the corridor. Vincent raised the Death Penalty and glanced around. He moved cautiously through the doorway, and beckoned Yuffie to follow.

She stepped through the door and gasped. The place was covered in hoses, pipes and cables, the faint glow of monitors lighting the room dimly. The remains of an immense glass tank glowed eerily, and crouched before it was Sephiroth. Yuffie's imagination ran away with her, and for a few moments she knew how Cloud and Zack had felt, standing before the suddenly untrustworthy Sephiroth and wondering if they would have to kill a General who had once been quite all right.

Yuffie glanced at Vincent, then back to the silver-haired swordsman. "Sephiroth?" She asked fearfully. He barely twitched. "Sephiroth?"

Vincent's eyes narrowed speculatively. "Sephiroth. Respond." His tone did not permit disobedience. Sephiroth's head turned slowly to regard them over his shoulder.

"Why wasn't I told?"

His voice sounded empty, but calmly reasonable. It made a shiver of cold run through Yuffie. She took a step back, towards Vincent. The scarlet-cloaked gunman glanced at her and shifted the Death Penalty restlessly. He chose his words with care.

"It was feared that if you recalled your past, you would recall your allegiance to another." He said obtusely. "It was also feared that with this remembered allegiance, your lucidity would… fade."

"You thought that remembering all about Jenova and Meteor and- and killing Aeris would drive me mad? And what of the wondering and the half-images of my past? The flames and the nightmare screams of the night I destroyed this town, over and over again in my mind…" Sephiroth sounded choked, though there was no real emotion in his voice. "You did not imagine that _that_ might be more damaging?" He raised his eyes to meet Vincent's in the unnatural blue light, still cold, but a hint of dangerous anger beginning to unveil itself. Yuffie took another step back and held the Conformer at ready, uncertain. Vincent only watched the other man with a calmness Yuffie felt was unprecedented.

"There was no safe way to keep your mind intact." He said quietly. "We did what we could." It was not an apology, but it seemed to drain Sephiroth. The anger had gone out of him, leaving him looking exanimate and lost. Yuffie dropped the Conformer to her side cautiously, and then walked towards him. Vincent watched as the blue light from the broken tank washed over them, making Yuffie look strange to his eyes.

"Sephiroth? Do you want to come back to Nibelheim with us, now? So that we can talk?" She carefully held out her left hand to him. Sephiroth let out a quiet, defeated sigh and took a weary step towards her.

"I… I think I remember, now…"

He walked out of the door, Yuffie trotting a few paces behind him. After a little while, she swallowed hard and took his hand encouragingly. He barely glanced down.

Halfway along the narrow passage, Vincent said suddenly, "Yuffie, get down." She yanked hard on Sephiroth's hand, dropping into a crouch. She brought out her Conformer and held it in front of her like a shield as Sephiroth's knees hit the ground. In a place as dark as this, she trusted Vincent's senses with her life, for they were much more trustworthy than her own. She heard the ominous click of the Death Penalty above her head and covered her ears, ducking lower to the ground. Silence.

"Vincent? That you?" Cloud's voice asked. Barret seconded this with a, "Yo, Vince!"

"Cloud." Vincent lowered the Death Penalty. "We found him." Sephiroth stood up. Vincent looked down at Yuffie's vague shape in the darkness. He touched her shoulder gently and she jumped. He felt a vague sense of sympathy. He knew that under other conditions, she had excellent senses and reflexes. The impenetrable darkness must have been an uncomfortable surrounding for her. "It's Cloud." He informed her softly once she had lifted her hands from her ears.

Yuffie stood up. "Guess we should have brought down some flashlights…" she said.

"Is Sephiroth okay?" Aeris' voice asked worriedly. A sigh from beside Yuffie.

"I am fine." He said dolefully. "You should not have come looking for me."

Silence greeted this. Yuffie squeezed Sephiroth's hand. "Hey, where are Tifa, Red and Cait? Did they come back yet?"

"Not yet. Let's go back to the intersection and wait for them there." Cloud decided firmly. "We can explore this place a little later, when we're better prepared. We only came down for Sephiroth."

"Yeah, gotta get outta this place." Barret agreed loudly. There was silence again. Aeris glowered at the black man's words, even though she couldn't see him and he couldn't see her. Under cover of darkness, Cloud almost smiled. She was cute when she was angry. Finally, Barret said, "Uh… Sephiroth, man… sorry 'bout my big mouth… shouldna yelled it like that… sorry ya had to find out like that…"

Sephiroth's only real reply was a soft sigh. Cloud grimaced as he saw the taller man's shoulders slump slightly in something like defeat. He cleared his throat. "Let's head back and find Tifa and the others."

A/N: Big mega humongo thankyous to Shizumaru.


	12. Scars

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters, concepts or locations from Final Fantasy VII. They are the rightful property of Squaresoft. I own a Drunken Sephiroth Doll, a Vincent Valentine cut-out, Lana, Feather and all of the Imbued. No stealing, or my insectoid minions shall flock unto you and eat your liver... or, if you'd prefer, your spleen.

A/N: Um. Um. I don't know what to say except that I'm a REALLY big idiot and this is the second time this has happened with this fic. It's really not a good idea to write a fic when you're in the middle of a classroom with no references, and to them just trust that your mind knows what it's talking about, as mine rarely does.

Shizumaru has once again saved me in pointing out that the scene with Reeve's rescue was missing. This is because I thought I'd typed it out, but hadn't, and posted a chapter ages ago that was missing a segment. Because I am a bona fide moron. In any case, the missing scene has been inserted into the meeting scene, much like Cloud's explanations in Kalm. ; Please forgive me for being a scatterbrained ditz, and I swear that this will NOT happen again.

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter Twelve: Scars

Cloud had decreed that investigations of the new cellar could wait until they were all rested and completely prepared. Yuffie thought that he was being too cautious. Their immediate concern _had _been to find Sephiroth, but... she sighed and dug her hand into her pocket for the cracked materia. The newly prepared niche in her heart labeled 'Sephiroth' was still concerned for the silver-haired man, but now that he was safe it had veered back to the reason they were all here: her father. Wutai. The others all seemed to have forgotten, what with Reeve and Aeris and Sephiroth. But how could Yuffie forget? He was her father. It was her village.

She felt ashamed that her next thought was, _This__ was My Leviathan._

She stared intently down at the two halves of the cracked materia, as though it were a Rubik's Cube. It didn't seem to have such a methodical solution, though. She couldn't work it out. She'd never heard of materia breaking. She'd never even seen materia crushed or destroyed - they were stronger than steel and, she'd always felt, indestructible. That was why they were so precious... once you had them, they couldn't be destroyed through some crazy accident. Well protected, they were Wutai's livelihood... why else would she have worked so long and hard to steal so much of the stuff for Wutai's benefit? She frowned at a chill of foreboding and looked back down at the two hemispheres of dulled red crystal.

Did it have something to do with that Choco-Girl Red, Barret and Cid had run into? Did it have something to do with Sephiroth? Yuffie sighed. She just didn't know enough to be able to come up with any idea of what to do. She lay back on her window seat to hold her materia above her face. The light from the window streamed down through the darkened, clouded materia, giving the wood struck by the light a ruddy cast. In her seventeen years, Yuffie had learned that a surprising amount of things had to do with Sephiroth.

She closed her eyes, and rested her hands and the materia on her stomach. She really wanted to be out doing something about her missing father and retainer, and avenging the deaths of three of her four advisors. Chekhov had been the closest thing Yuffie had had to a mother for a long time, and though they hadn't always gotten along because of Yuffie's willful nature, she had been... tolerant wasn't really the word for it, Yuffie supposed. But she had always taken care of Yuffie. Gorky had always been the dorky old tutor who shared her sweet tooth and love of mischief. And Shake was a kid, just like she had been, and equally underestimated. Yuffie felt the lashes of her closed eyes clot with tears. She immediately stopped screwing her eyes tightly shut - she didn't want the tears to slide down her cheeks. People would notice if she had to rub at them.

She searched for something else to concentrate on, and found it almost instantly. Faint but clear in the thin air of the mountains came a mechanical whine. At first she thought it was one of the mansion's generators, but upon listening more closely she recognised the familiar roar of the Highwind. She almost felt sick just hearing it.

She decided to wait until someone came to get her. She didn't want people to get the impression she was really worried, and she was in no hurry to have to deal with Butthead the Turkey again.

And she was still crying. So, no movement for a little while, then.

It was a while before the Highwind landed, and a longer while before anyone came to get her, long enough that she began to worry they had forgotten her. A touch on her shoulder made her jack-knife into a sitting position, her heart hammering in her throat, only to be met by Vincent's soft, soothing rumble.

"The Turks have returned with Reeve and a stranger." He informed her. She glared at him wordlessly for a few moments, trying to swallow her heart and persuade it to resume its usual beating.

"Don't sneak up on me like that!" She hissed, even as she bounded to her feet, pocketing the cracked materia. Vincent moved away and turned to walk back out into the hall. She trotted after him. "Hey, is he okay? Where was he? Did something really awful happen to Reno?"

"I am sure you can ask them yourself."

"Conversation killer." Yuffie accused him cheerfully. As they emerged into the front room she could see Reeve still being half-strangled by Tifa as he goggled at Aeris and Sephiroth over the tall woman's shoulder. Yuffie herself stared at a pale woman with a black tear tattooed down her cheek in a tremulous line. The very strange stranger was looking as though slightly afraid, and while Reeve was being mauled by various AVALANCHE members, was reduced to clinging to Rude's arm and staring distrustfully at her surroundings.

"I'm so glad you're safe!" Tifa was saying, staving off tears with a grin. Reeve took a couple of deep breaths and coughed once when she finally let him go.

"Nice to see you again, Tifa." He croaked. Then, clearing his throat, he said much more confidently, "Hi everyone." He looked around, surprised to be without Feather attached to him, and smiled at her and gestured her forward.

"Guys, this is Feather. I met her in the complex, and she can't remember her real name." He added in explanation to Barret's raised eyebrows. "Feather, these are all my friends." He glanced dubiously at Sephiroth as he said this, but Feather smiled timidly at all of them as though she didn't recognise the swordsman.

Cloud seemed to come back to himself. "All right, people, let's get a decent meal organised. Reeve, you and Feather can go clean up if you want, and then you can tell us all about your little... adventure." At Reeve's nod, Tifa immediately enlisted the help of Yuffie, Vincent, Lana and Cid in the kitchen, the latter of which was soon expelled from the room soon after. ("Smoked salmon is great… but we can do without smoked everything else, y' damn chimney!")

Reeve ducked forward as the others filed slowly from the room and caught Aeris up in a tight hug, having abandoned the idea of composedly shaking her hand a little while ago. "I am _so_ glad you're back." He told her, his voice muffled in her shoulder. "I missed you."

Aeris smiled at him, her eyes kindly. "I missed you, too, Reeve. You'll have to tell me all about Midgar, later. I know you aren't using mako any more… you've done a great job." She tilted her head at him, green eyes sparkling with amusement. "You need a shower. Pee-U!" She told him without rancour. Reeve grinned abashedly.

"Bet I do," he agreed easily. "I'll go have one, then, stop killing off your sense of smell." He gave her a noogie, and started off towards the shower as she squawked in surprise and ducked away from him, poking out her tongue. Feather made a noise of protest and darted after him, shooting a wide-eyed look at Aeris as she passed. Reno was swift on her heels – he wasn't about to let his boss get snatched away again.

A few minutes later, only Sephiroth, Rude and Elena stood in the main hall. Elena stood a few minutes of apparently calm staring before it got on her nerves. She grit her teeth as she watched Sephiroth out of the corner of her eye. _What's up, mako boy? You looking for another Turk to pick off?_ She scowled at him, and Sephiroth looked away. She was surprised at her own self-control. A year ago, she would have killed the man with her bare hands.

He opened his mouth as if to speak, and then stopped, uncertain of what to say. Both perceptive of silence, Elena and Rude looked at him expectantly, the former slightly less tolerant than the latter. Sephiroth spoke softly and hesitantly in his crisply articulate baritone.

"Tseng was your leader, was he not?"

Snarl-lines appeared on Elena's face. He could almost feel the heat of her wrath, like a fire spell in front of his face. It was Rude who answered his question with a single nod. Sephiroth licked his lips and continued carefully but nonetheless sincerely. "Cloud will probably tell you about what has happened while you were absent… but I'm telling you now, I have regained my memories of… that time."

"And?" The girl's anger and tears made her voice strangle. Sephiroth's eyes made a brief trip to the floor before he turned his head to look her in the eye.

"I am sorry. Truly sorry. Tseng was also my friend, a long time ago. When I was a child. He… he used to take care of me. I'm sorry." No matter how hard he struggled to keep the emotion from his voice, it crept into the words and robbed them of formality. He became aware that Rude was listening. Elena clenched her fists and turned her face to the ceiling, her eyes closed as she struggled with her tears.

"You're lying." She said at last. Her heels echoed loudly in the otherwise silent room as she left.

Rude looked at Sephiroth for a long moment, as though he would speak. The bald man nodded slowly, then followed Elena from the room.

Alone, Sephiroth looked up at the stained glass angel. He knew who she was now, with her golden tresses and her long grave face and violet eyes. "…my mother. Lucrecia." He bowed his head to her briefly, and left the room. Perhaps Tifa had a task for him, too.

Rude found Elena beside a fountain, her back straight and her fists thrown down by her sides, clenched so tightly he was sure she would make her hands bleed. He walked up beside her and stood there, a looming shadow in the gloomy Nibelheim morning. "Elena."

He put a hand on her shoulder hesitantly. _You'll be okay._ She shook her head furiously and turned to face him, her tears and Rude's hand dashed away by the sudden movement. _You're angry. Why are you angry? I thought that you would be sad._

"I wanted to hate him, Rude. I wanted to hate him _so much_, and—he's not lying, is he? You can tell, I know you can. He's not lying. He's telling the damn truth." She was really furious with Sephiroth.

Rude nodded slowly. _He isn't lying._

Elena's shoulders slumped and she sagged against him, something she never would have done if he were Reno. _If I were Reno, I would tell you to quit being a baby. But I'm not._ He put an arm around her carefully, almost afraid she would shatter. After such a long time in the same team he knew she was made of stronger stuff. But she had never been so fragile as she had been when Tseng had died.

"It's all right." He told her. It wasn't. But perhaps it was what she would like to hear.

"I wanted him to be evil." She told him brokenly. "I wanted him to be crazy, to be a fruitcake. But he's normal. He's normal, and damn him, he's _sorry_. He _shouldn't_ be sorry. He should be aloof and uncaring and… and he was almost crying himself, Rude. Why was he almost crying?"

_I don't know. He said Tseng was his friend, too. Maybe it was Jenova's fault, not Sephiroth's. Maybe Valentine knows. He seems to understand Sephiroth more than any of us but Aeris._

"Try asking Valentine."

"Vincent." She reminded him tiredly. "His name is Vincent. His Turk name was Vincent, too. You owe it to him as a Turk to call him that."

Rude's eyes behind his glasses smiled at that. _I know. I'll try and remember that._

Elena sighed and pushed herself away from Rude, carefully wiping her eyes. "Do I have mascara on my face?" She asked, tucking her hair neatly behind her ears. He shook his head once and she nodded in a satisfied way. A deep breath later and she had a tremulous smile back on her face, ready to face the rest of AVALANCHE.

"Feather's going to need some clothes. Do you think she'll fit my things? I think she's smaller than me… probably an eight, maybe even a six… she's so thin, isn't she? Maybe Yuffie would lend her something. They both have tiny frames… what do you think she'd prefer?"

He knew she wasn't really expecting him to answer, so he shrugged and started to walk back to the house as she prattled on about colours and cuts and Feather only accepting things from people she knew best. She hadn't shattered and she hadn't been silenced. In his world, that was a blessing.

In the end, Feather ended up wearing a blue and white yukata over a pair of Elena's pants. She seemed quite content curled in a chair beside Reeve, her wide apple green eyes taking in everything around her with child-like curiosity as the members of AVALANCHE and the Turks filed into the long dining room. The ornately carved table was littered with reports and dusty manila folders, especially near where Cloud sat at the head of the table. She leaned in closer to Reeve as Reno passed behind her, keeping her eyes his shadow. He was angry. She wondered why, and offered him a tremulous smile as he took a seat next to Reeve. He winked at her, but his heart wasn't in it. She felt sad for him. _Smile_.

Cloud shuffled his papers meaningfully as Cait Sith bounced into the room to stand and sway cheerfully behind Feather and Reeve. Feather's eyes were drawn to the blond man as he began to speak.

"Reeve. You were captured eight days ago and taken directly, as far as we know, to a large complex out to sea, due east of Glacier Village. The complex may warrant further investigation, but we'll hear from you first. Tell us what you can about it."

Reeve steepled his hands before his face thoughtfully before he began to speak. "The night Ayuki attacked me, she came into my office talking about some sort of procedure… I wasn't paying very much attention at the time, but the next I looked up at her, it was really cold in the office, and her eyes were glowing. Something hit me on the head, and I don't remember anything after that until I woke up in the complex." He leaned back in his chair and balanced it on two of its legs. "I met Feather while I was walking around the complex. So far as I could see, there was no one around, and nothing except miles and miles of white corridors. It was creepy. Anyway… there's a big room right in the centre of the complex – I think, anyway. It's about the size of two football fields, and it's… well, for a start, there's no real floor. There's just metal grating over water, with stacks of crates everywhere. It has an open chimney-type docking bay – it's so big, even the Highwind wouldn't have problems. That's where I found my things, and called Reno."

He paused and closed his eyes, as though trying to catalogue something in his mind. "Ayuki attacked us while we were on our way out. She… summoned Shiva, sort of. She used Diamond Dust on us, or tried to… Feather told her to get back, and for some reason it worked. Ayuki passed out and Shiva disappeared, but whatever she'd done made Feather weak as well. I called Reno, and then took Feather to the outside wall, and we waited for the Turks."

Everyone looked to Reno, hanging on Reeve's words and waiting for the rest of the story. He cleared his throat and leaned forward on his elbows. "All right… it goes like this…"

_It had taken hours for them to reach the complex, stuck as it was in the middle of the ocean. Reno boredly steered the sub into the rocky shore, bringing it up parallel to the side of the building. He looked back to Elena, and said, "Well, Meltzer, what was your plan? If you're gonna take away all the fun of using whatever weapon this thing has, it'd better be a decent one."_

_Lana spun her chair to face Elena. "I've got a lock on the wall about fifty feet to the east. Tell Reeve to cover his head and crouch; I don't want any debris hitting him." Elena relayed this message obediently, giving Lana the thumbs up when Reeve had complied._

_Lana turned back to her control panel, her eyes glinting wildly. "Let's see what this baby can do." She dragged her fingertips over the panel in front of her and pressed a red button that was labelled rather obviously 'FIRE'. There was the briefest of pauses, and the side of the complex exploded with surprising force. Reno looked at Rude, who gave him a dubious look as Lana made slight sounds of complete gleeful insanity. Elena bit her lip and spoke into the PHS._

_"Reeve, sir, are you all right?" She must have received some sort of answer, for she looked to Rude. "Very well, sir, proceed to the big hole in the wall. Rude and I will meet you outside." She tossed the PHS to Lana, nodded to Rude, and the two of them scrambled up the ladder and through the hatch into the very cold outside world._

Reno sat back. "'Laney, you can tell what happened from there, I think. I couldn't see much of it."

Elena nodded once, firmly. "Yes, sir. Rude climbed down to assist Reeve…"

_Elena stood with her hands tucked into her armpits, shivering, as the tall man climbed down the side of the submarine and made his way cautiously across the rocks to where Reeve and Feather were waiting, hunched with the cold. Rude immediately offered his jacket to his employer, who gestured that it would be more appreciated by his female companion. Elena's eyes darted over the once-wall of the complex and her eyes narrowed in concentration. "Rude! Look at the wall!"_

_Rude turned to survey the building as thick mist began to pour from the opening. Reeve let out a cry and grabbed Feather's hand, dashing across the rocks and to the submarine with speed that she'd never seen him exhibit before. Elena frowned at this and levelled her hand gun at the mist that was slowly unfurling from the complex. Feather suddenly stopped, jerking her hand free of Reeve's as Elena spotted a human figure in the mist. She waited a few seconds to identify it, but in those seconds spears of ice lanced out of the mist. Elena let out a startled cry and dropped to the deck of the submarine as the shards sped past where her torso had been moments earlier. Her eyes narrowed and she rolled behind the hatch turret and started firing as a woman, Doctor Ayuki, emerged from the complex._

_She laughed as the smoke solidified around her figure. "You always were a fool, Mr President!" She shouted. "You should have finished the job! Now you won't get the chance to do so." Elena's bullets ricocheted off the ice shield that surrounded her, Rude's equally useless. Feather ran back towards the complex, her heels gripping the rocks admirably for their poor design, as Reeve shouted for her to come back. The solidifying mist formed a wraith of the goddess Shiva, who raised her arms and swept them forward. Great spires of ice moved towards the submarine like a wall. Rude stood stock-still and Elena's eyes widened. There was no way to escape that rain of death._

_"NO! RUDE!" The words ripped from her throat, as though a mere thing like her voice could change something in this situation._

_Feather let out a scream of protest, and threw her arms forward. The ice lances shattered into powder, and the shadow-figure of Shiva vanished. Ayuki staggered back. Elena raised her gun and pulled the trigger. The doctor lurched backwards and collapsed, blood trickling blackly from the hole in her forehead._

_The mist that had condensed around her form vanished, but not ten feet from her body it conglomerated into the crouching form of Shiva. Frost tendrils worked their way outwards, the rocky shore cracked as it froze even harder than it had been, and Feather ran full-pelt for Ayuki's body, scrabbling helplessly on the rocks as ice covered their surface._

_"Help me!" She called back at Rude. "Help me find… find the broken orb…!" She dropped to the ground beside Ayuki's body and grasped one half of the materia that had been in her hair clip. Her eyes darted around frantically as Rude began to slowly and unthreateningly move past Shiva._

_"Go, Rude!" Elena assured him. "I'll cover for you."_

_The bald man nodded once and ran past Shiva. The goddess' eyes were still closed, as though she was concentrating on something inside herself. But Rude had barely reached Feather's side when they opened and Shiva looked around her as though she had never seen the world before. She raised a palm before her, and immediately an ice crystal formed there. Elena narrowed her eyes and aimed carefully, doubting the effectiveness of her weapon against the ice goddess._

_Feather let out a triumphant cry and leapt on something in the debris of the complex wall. Shiva's eyes widened and she turned to face Feather as the girl brought the two halves of the materia together and stood up again, her eyes focussed on Shiva's with steely determination._

_"Go… back… to sleep…" She breathed heavily. "Return… to your slumber…"_

_Shiva flung her arms down by her sides in rage. Then she pouted at the girl, and was gone._

Elena looked along the table to Feather, drawing Cloud's attention to the girl. "And then?" He asked calmly.

"…I don't know what happened." She said quietly, her voice dismayed. "I knew what I had to do… but I don't know why or how I did it. I made Her go back to sleep, so She wouldn't hurt us… it wouldn't have been balanced, if She had stayed…" She heard her voice shrinking as AVALANCHE seemed to lean towards her, drinking up her information.

"Okay." Cloud said, surprisingly patient. "Can you tell us anything else at all?" Feather thought about it carefully, her apple green eyes far away, and laid the resealed Shiva materia upon the tabletop.

"It was cloven in two and the ice goddess was freed. Now that it is whole again, she is once more completely within human control." She said with complete certainty. "And that's all I know."

Across from her, Yuffie made a soft sound in her throat and pushed her chair back. Her soft grey eyes were wide and pleading.

"Can I see? Please?" She reached for the orb. Reeve glanced to Feather. The girl pushed the materia across the table at Yuffie. The ninja picked it up and rolled the orb around in her hands, and then took out her own cracked Leviathan materia to set them side by side on the table. "The Shiva materia was cut in half like this, right?" A hesitant nod from the clown confirmed this and Yuffie frowned. "So Leviathan is free? But that doesn't make any sense. It hasn't rained for_ever_ and Reno said that Shiva made it really _cold_…"

"Perhaps it was also related to the death of the one who possessed it." Red suggested. "Perhaps the powers that bound Shiva were tied to Ayuki."

"That makes more sense than it doesn't." Reno agreed. "She did say she was the Shiva-Imbued."

"And what does that make the Choco-girl-thing?" Cid growled. "Ain't there a Moogle somewhere in that Summon? Well, where's the Moogle?"

"How did you fuse it? Do you know how?" Yuffie spoke louder than all of them, her voice taking on an odd quality. Feather's eyes fixed onto Yuffie's as the table went silent. She seemed suddenly very different from the girl who had handed her the cotton robe with a smile and a laugh.

"I… I don't think so. I could only… only when she was _there_…" She shook her head suddenly, her hands going to her temples. "I don't know. I'm sorry." Reeve patted her arm reassuringly.

"It's all right," he told her. "You did well. What's been happening here while I was away? Elena filled me in on most of it, but I still didn't believe I'd walk in to see Aeris or Sephiroth." Reeve stopped at the uncomfortable silence that formed around his words. Aeris was the one to speak.

"Sephiroth discovered a new passage in the mansion, right near the old one. It's much bigger than just the passage to the office and the archives. Cloud, Barret and I followed it to a dead-end with a large archive."

"We think we found another lab," Tifa volunteered. "It was too dark to see much, but there was some light through an observation window from what we think are mako tanks." She crossed her arms to stifle a shudder and leaned back in her chair."

"The passage I took led to the Mt Nibel reactor." Sephiroth said from his stance at the window behind Cid and Aeris. He faced the night outside, but his eyes watched their reflections in the glass. "I believe that the lab Tifa has discovered is one on which only the more discreet operations of the Jenova Project were carried out."

"I knew nothing of its existence." Vincent commented, as though to confirm this. "It may be as you say. Or it may be that it was installed due to complaints of interruptions to Hojo's work." His tone was a careful monotone, but Yuffie had to suppress the urge to shudder. She wanted to say, _Don't__ be so #$ morbid, Vinnie_, but the silence that followed his words was too loud for frivolous words to break.

"The new lab and archive will need looking into. If the mansion is our base of operations, we need to know all of its secrets. The archive might have what we've been looking for in the basement library all along." Cloud decided optimistically. "If not, we'll just have had a whole lot more than we needed to know about Hojo, right?" He tried for levity and failed, the words falling flat in the atmosphere of the room. He didn't allow the unimpressed silence to bog things down for long. "We'll go down in the morning, properly equipped this time. One team to read, one team to explore the lab, and one team to kill off as many of the monsters from the mountain as possible."

Reeve raised his hand. "And one team to go shopping." He said. "Reno's clothes suck." There was a light ripple of chuckling at this, punctuated by Reno's unrepentant swearing at his boss. Cloud's mouth twitched aside in a grin.

"All right then." He said quite seriously. "Who wants to go shopping?" Aeris raised her hand gleefully, followed by the slightly less enthusiastic Reeve and Sephiroth. Feather put her hand up nervously after a moment's hesitation. "And who wants to read all day? Shoppers can help once they get back." Red, Tifa, Elena and Rude raised their hands. "Explorers?" Cloud raised his own hand as he spoke, followed by Cid, Barret and Lana. "Exterminators?"

Yuffie rolled her eyes at Cloud's stupid question and waved enthusiastically. Vincent gave her an odd look as he raised his claw briefly, and Reno made the 'crazy' gesture as he volunteered. Cloud raised an eyebrow and she grinned cheekily, refusing to be made fun of.

"What about lazy-ass robots?" She asked, jerking a thumb at Cait Sith. The cat poked his tongue out. "Ya know, he'd make great bait being all soft and mushy-like…"

"Hold it, sistah! Ya wanna have someone ta hold down the fort, doncha? I can get into contact with y'all – I've got a switchboard now, y'know." He said proudly. Cid muttered something foul about knowing about the #$ switchboard and Reeve chuckled.

"Blame my execs and the SOLDIERs. He was the only reliable switchboard while we rebuilt the towers, and even then only if we stood him right on top of the Shinra HQ rubble…"

"Yeah, back then we were screwed real bad." Barret said loudly, and the group laughed for the first time as Cait yowled and launched himself across the polished table at the black man, missing entirely and sliding, his clawless paws scrabbling helplessly, right off the table onto the floor. Sephiroth just stood at the window, watching.

A/N: -.- I swear, I will never write a chapter in English again… shows what happens, really. Anyway, thankyou to Shizumaru for pointing out the oddness of skipping that scene… 'twas rather foolish of me, and shan't happen again… okay, please review, and PLEASE tell me anything you notice that is odd about Rude's characterisation. I really do not think I'm getting him right.


	13. The Underground Laboratory

Disclaimer: All characters, concepts, items and STUFF in Final Fantasy VII are the rightful property of Squaresoft, now Square Enix. I am merely taking the characters out on a… um… tour. Yes. A tour. An AVALANCHE tour. To, um, make villages feel loved and protected. ; I own Feather, Lana, the cadet and ALL of the Imbued. Got that? Steal them and DIE! pets her Glock lovingly

A/N: pumps fist triumphantly All RIGHT! I have finished all my exams for this year, and now all I have to do for eight weeks is… NOTHING! Haha! grin So that means more regular updates of F&F, and hopefully more regular updates of all the rest of my fics, too… so make sure you check them out, if you're interested.

OK, now **_before you read this chapter:_** I was an idiot again and uploaded an incomplete chapter twelve. So if you HAVEN'T seen the scene with the defeat of the Shiva-Imbued in it (I don't really feel like I'm spoiling anything here, y'all know it had to happen…) then go back and reread! If you're too lazy to read the whole chapter again, just read the italicised section in the meeting scene. Okay? Okay!

**Jez** and **Tree** – finally, your debut! It's not a huge debut, but it's a debut. And I guess it's not really a debut for Jez. But. Anyway. More on you two next chapter!

**Demeter**, I think you gave me a huge load of help on everyone but the person I'm having trouble with! ;-) laughs hysterically You're full of great insight… what do you think of Rude?

And **Shizumaru**… I know this should probably be in a reply to a review for 'Tales From The Less Than Well Equipped', but I'm really looking forward to your up-and-coming Yuffentine. Make sure you tell me when it's up, because by the sounds of things you really know what you're doing when you write.

Long author's note – but then, it's a long chapter. Enjoy!

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter Thirteen: The Underground Laboratory

It was early in the part of the following morning that would usually be considered late when the shopping crew left the mansion, 'burdened' with large amounts of Gil and long lists given to them by the other members of AVALANCHE. Aeris had appointed herself the Keeper of the Shopping Lists, while Reeve took charge of the Gil – he had watched Aeris through Cait Sith long enough to know that she and her penchant for impulse buying were not to be trusted.

Sephiroth wandered behind Feather and Reeve with a dull expression. He had been persuaded over the course of a few hours to don one of Rude's spare suits, but upon trying it he had decided that the entire ensemble made him look ridiculous. In the end he had grumpily conceded to wear the shirt and slacks, and to bind his hair down his back. He _still_ thought he looked ridiculous, but he was quite glad he had left the Masamune in the mansion. Carrying his beloved sword on his back while wearing a dress shirt might have made him stand out a little _too_ much…

His mako eyes passed over Aeris, chatting animatedly at Feather six feet in front of him. It was just as well he had left the blade behind. Every time he looked at it, he seemed to remember the handle slick with Cetra blood. Sephiroth shivered, and then jumped as a voice behind him yelled, "Hey! Aeris, Seth! Nice to see you two again."

Sephiroth turned to face the voice and somehow managed to keep a straight face as he recognised Jenny. He looked back at his 'wife' as Reeve mouthed "Seth?" to him in puzzlement. Sephiroth made a barely perceptible shake of his head and then turned back to Jenny with a nod.

"Jennifer." He acknowledged coolly. Aeris was more cordial, rushing forward to greet the other woman.

"Jenny! Hello." She stood before the ginger-haired merchant, a gleeful grin spreading across her face. "We're going on a shopping trip! Do you know where we can find a…" She consulted one of her scraps of paper. "…a weapons shop?"

Jenny smiled and put one hand on her hip, jerking her thumb down the way she had come. "There's a weapon store over yonder. He specialises in blades, but he's got a fair range of other weaponry. I'm Jenny by the way." She added to Reeve, who was still looking puzzled. He blinked and held out his hand hastily, walking closer so she could reach it.

"I'm Reeve." He introduced himself with a smile. Jenny looked speculative, but shook his hand and tried to do the same with Feather. When the woman cringed backward, peering around Reeve's shoulder, Jenny withdrew uncertainly. Reeve chuckled. "Ah… she's just shy. This is Feather. Don't be offended, she doesn't mean anything by it."

"I'll take your word for it, President Reeve." She grinned as Reeve looked abashed. "Well, you're not the most unnoticeable man around. What on earth brings all of AVALANCHE, the President of Neo-Shinra, a SOLDIER and three of what I assume are Turks to Nibelheim? Is there something wrong?"

Sephiroth glanced briefly at Aeris' face, frozen in a smile, and at Reeve's hesitation, and decided that he would have to save them if the public was to be spared the details. "Only a reunion for all of us. Vincent is really the only person who can house us all, with Reeve rebuilding Midgar."

"Oh." Jennifer was still puzzled. "But… Ms Gainsborough, forgive me – I heard you died." She burst out. Sephiroth's jaw clenched and he knew his eyes had gone cold. Perhaps he could still use it to his advantage.

"She was not killed, as you see, only very badly wounded. But we had to hide her survival from Sephiroth so that he would not... finish the job." He lied fluently, shooting a glance at Aeris. One slender hand had dropped to rub her stomach in discomfort. Jennifer seemed to have finished prying for the day, satisfied with the explanations Sephiroth had given.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to bring up something that must have been traumatic for you both." She apologised. "Please, don't let me keep you from your errands. If you need anything, just drop by. I'll put Vincent's discount on whatever you need." When Reeve and Aeris both began to protest, she held up a firm hand. "No buts! I know how it is – the rest of you barely got rewarded for your efforts. Once the world's safe again, people like to pretend it would have gotten that way all by itself. But Nibelheim remembers. That's why we all put together and rebuilt the mansion for Vincent." She waved to them and began to walk away. "So keep that in mind if you ever need anything. Nibelheim will always be grateful to you."

Sephiroth looked away guiltily as Aeris waved and promised they would drop by later. He strode away, Aeris trotting at his heels. She took his arm companionably. "I don't think Yuffie could have lied that well." She said with a slight smile. "You'll have to teach me sometime. I couldn't keep a straight face if my life depended on it."

She moved back to talk to Feather again, and Sephiroth was left to wonder why on earth she would want to be able taint herself with lies.

Yuffie sighed and shamelessly grabbed the back of Reno's jacket to wipe off the blade of her Conformer. In the wan light of occasional fluorescent bulbs – someone must have discovered a generator back near the lab – she could see the evilly glowing blood of the fiends clearly on the dark blue fabric. Reno turned around and made a growling sound at her, and she could _very_ clearly see his expression of distaste.

"That's disgusting, brat!" He tilted his head oddly in an attempt to see whatever she had smeared on his back, and shuddered at the sticky, wet feeling seeping through the material. "Sick…"

Yuffie shrugged at him and moved forward to walk a few paces behind Vincent. The man seemed increasingly uptight as they journeyed through the subterranean passageways, and she thought she understood why. Someone, presumably Hojo, had gone to a lot of trouble to build this place, for what purpose she wasn't quite sure. In any case, Vincent didn't exactly have a bunch of memories that were sunshine and daisies as far as Hojo was concerned. She shuddered slightly, a chill running down her spine, and Reno sneered at her, still annoyed.

"Scared, brat? Shoulda stayed back." He snapped.

Yuffie bridled. "No I am not!" She shot back with a glare. "I was-"

"Be quiet." Vincent said suddenly, his voice harsher than usual. Yuffie glowered at him. Reno sauntered past.

"Yeah, brat." He whispered snidely, shooting her a triumphant half-smile. Yuffie's eyes narrowed furiously at him, but she composed her features swiftly. Turning her nose in the air, she turned to follow Vincent happily… and then spun around and delivered a vicious kick to Reno's shin. He let out a startled yelp, hopping sideways until he reached the wall. As he rested there and Yuffie breathed heavily through her nose, still fuming, they both became aware of Vincent's quiet but lethal fury at their backs. Yuffie turned around very slowly and tried to look non-threatening.

"Would the two of you care to cease acting as infants, and contribute?" He asked icily. A scowling Reno opened his mouth to retort, but upon seeing Yuffie frantically shaking her head at him, curbed the desire. Vincent turned and stalked away along the corridor ahead of them, and Yuffie let out a sigh of relief.

She left Reno to nurse his 'wounds', trotting to keep up with Vincent's long strides. He was a fast walker at the best of times, but when he was angry, she practically had to run to keep up. Whenever she'd been part of his party in the past, she'd learned early on not to antagonise him too much – because when he got angry, he just _stormed_, and then she had to waste a lot of energy keeping up with the guy.

Vincent, for his part, was doing his very best to calm himself down. This place was making him very uncomfortable… enough memories lurked in Nibelheim to be a problem, but with the discovery of what promised to be more of Hojo's despicable experiments, old fears were coming back to haunt him. And where Vincent quailed, Chaos stretched out its influence, lapping in the negative emotions and growing stronger, pressing on Vincent's mind. Chaos was an ever-feeding leech inside his skull, slowly expanding and taking over the mind… Vincent clenched his teeth. _Your games will not work on me, demon. I know your tricks. You'll not frighten me with superstition. **I** am in control here._

With something that sounded suspiciously like a grumble, Vincent felt the deathly presence subside a little. He blinked his blood red eyes and focussed on his surroundings once more. On their last foray into the tunnel, it had been bereft of monsters. Perhaps Sephiroth's presence, so swiftly followed by his own, was enough to terrify even fiends into submission. But now the passage crawled with them. None were particularly difficult to deal with, but Vincent had noticed that they seemed to have more strength than they usually did in this area. When he had cast an Ice spell, they seemed to have an abnormally high tolerance of magic. He wondered if that were more due to the intense cold of Nibelheim or the lingering effects of the Mt Nibel reactor.

"Hey Valentine, what's the deal?" Reno asked, interrupting his thoughts. Vincent paused, and turned to regard the Turk questioningly. Reno huffed out an impatient sigh. "I mean, what are we doing, going to the reactor?"

"The reactor still seems to be producing monsters, even though it is supposed to be shut down. If that is true, our aim should be to prevent more monsters from entering this tunnel, and to destroy all those that remain." Vincent replied at last, somewhat distantly. Reno didn't like the distance.

"We can close the door, but I'm betting that any monster that scents any of us will beat it down to get to human blood. If we shut it off permanently, so that no monster can break through, we won't be able to come back this way – and we don't know that Strife wants this passage blocked off." He argued with more rationale than Vincent had seen in the Turk previously. "I think it'd make a nice back door. That mansion isn't exactly what I'd call _defensible_."

In reply, Vincent's human hand snaked down to take the PHS from his belt. He dialled swiftly, holding it up to his ear. He made a sound of annoyance when the only sounds that came through were the hissing and spitting of static. "…we are too far under ground. For now, we will exterminate as many fiends as possible, until we know whether Cloud wants the passage closed off."

"But do we have to go that far today?" Yuffie whined. "That place is creepy! I don't want to go, Vinnie." Vincent turned and resumed walking, ignoring her outburst. She pouted and started after him sullenly. "We should just go through the labs and the archives and drag all the stuff that we need back upstairs. Then we could seal off everything we didn't need so no one could get back into this place…" _Back into these evil secrets no one save Leviathan needs to know…_

Reno, who had been twirling his Nightstick lazily, caught it at her words. She had once again surprised him – just like Elena used to when she came up with a better mission plan. He slung the Nightstick back across his shoulders. "Hey now, that isn't a bad idea. Good one, Yuffs." He gave her a sideways glance and a slight smile.

Yuffie turned up her nose. "That's Lady Kisaragi to you, Turkey." She sniffed, and turned the other way to hide the flush of gratitude that had risen in her cheeks. Despite her time as a part of AVALANCHE, she still couldn't help feeling like they didn't really recognise her abilities. To have the Turk congratulate her was a welcome change.

Glancing back over his shoulder at the two, Vincent surprised himself with a rush of real anger. He frowned, pinning it on the demon, but Chaos' looming shadow in his mind had receded. That left only him. Trying to rationalise it, he could only attribute the feeling to their juvenile attitude on a serious mission. He slowed his paced thoughtfully, and Yuffie finally fell into step with him, walking briskly at his shoulder.

Reno's step faltered as Vincent shot a glance at him over his shoulder. The gaze was as cold and apathetic as ever, but Reno's senses twanged at the wrongness. It was like… _Like being face to face with the guy whose girlfriend you've been bangin'. Only he has a flamethrower and a lot of chain-wielding friends, and there's no way for you to get away from the beating he's gonna give ya._ Reno blinked at the thought. Yuffie _had_ blushed at him a little while ago. Was Valentine… _jealous_? Nah, couldn't be. The guy was cold as stone. He'd heard Reno's reputation, and he was overprotective of the brat, because her father was missing and she was fragile.

Reno wondered when his brain had become so wonderful at making shit up. It didn't matter, anyway, except that he could have a little fun stirring Valentine if the former theory was correct. Even if the latter was true, he could make some fun out of it. Just as long as he didn't push it so far he got himself killed.

But hey, Reno loved to gamble.

With a shake of his head and a vague question as to whether he was crazy, Reno whistled badly as he followed Yuffie and Vincent down the long stone corridor to the reactor.

Cid swore softly to himself as he wandered through the lab, staring in awe at massive and complicated systems of pipes and pods that glowed softly with mako light. Lana followed behind him, her rifle on her shoulder. She was as suspicious of this place as Cid was amazed by it. He had no idea how any of these mechanisms worked, but he – and Shera too, no doubt – would have cut out his own liver to dismantle even _one_ of the things. He smiled slightly at the thought of bringing his wife into a creepy place like this, and knew she'd never see it if it was up to him. At the same time, he knew if she _did_ see it, she'd be like a three year old on a red cordial high at the sight of all these weird and wonderful machines.

He rubbed a calloused hand over the grimy glass panel that ran the length of the wall beside him and peered in. He whistled lowly. "Look – tanks, like the ones in the reactor." Lana scrubbed off a small section of the muck and looked through.

"Wonder what they're doing down here? They're like the tanks Shinra used to produce SOLDIERs." She pulled back from the window and rubbed the butt of her rifle thoughtfully. She turned to wave to Barret and Cloud as Cid rattled at the hatch-like door into the room. Even when Lana gave him a hand it wouldn't budge. It was only when Barret lent his bear-like bulk to the task that the seal finally opened, and the door swung aside with a scream of rusted, ill-maintained metal.

Cloud ventured cautiously inside, Ultima Weapon held before him. Lana and Barret levelled their guns at the mako pods as they moved carefully through the door. Cid made a derisive sound at their caution in the deserted lab, and felt around for a light switch.

When he found it, the harsh white light revealed rows upon rows of pods, staggered like the seats in a movie theatre. Several of the mako pods had been broken open, bleeding mako all over the metal floor. It covered the toes of Cloud's boots as he walked down the shallow stairs. He made a small sound of disgust, and got out of the mako puddle as soon as possible, hoisting himself up to the second row of pods.

Scanning along the pods beside Cloud, Barret made a sound of shock and dissent. Crouched before one of the open pods was some sort of creature. It could have been human once, but the limbs were now elongated and warped. It glistened in the light. Cloud recoiled from it, and stepped back down into the mako.

"It's materia – pure mako." Lana said with certainty. "Or near enough to it. My gods. That's disgusting."

"Does that mean this place is still having mako pumped in, to fill these tanks?" Barret asked. Cloud looked around and shook his head, shaggy blond spikes obscuring his vision for a few moments.

"I don't think so. This place would have flooded if it was still being supplied. I think it's been turned off for a long time." He leaned over and prodded the crystallised corpse with his blade. It was solid like rock. He gave it a harder jab, and a few chunks of crystal fell onto the solidified mako around the creature with a patter like a falling pebble.

"The things in these tanks… were they dead before the mako was shut off?" Lana asked, a slight tremor in her voice. Cloud shrugged. How was he supposed to know? Lana moved forward to scrub her hand almost frantically at the port hole of one of the tanks to clear it.

"This one's still nearly human." She said, horror in her voice. "Do you think some of them might still be alive? Look… he's just a child. What sort of monster could do this? To a _child_?" She started wrenching at the door. Barret moved forward to stop her. Cloud's lips formed a grim line as Lana fired her rifle into one of the hinges.

Mako spewed from the hole, and Lana jumped aside as the hatch was blown off the pod. A gush of emerald green liquid made the emaciated body of a blond boy sag out onto the floor, tearing free of tubes attached to his wrists and ribcage. He looked barely ten years old, but the flesh was gone from his long limbs and hard, scaly growths plated he shoulders, elbows, cheekbones, forehead. He was dead, but the growths glimmered and flashed like fire in the mako. Lana backed away, her magenta eyes wide. She was breathing as though she had run a marathon, hands clenched tightly around her rifle as though she would twist it from its elegant shape.

She felt Cloud's fingers come to rest firmly on her shoulder, and he steered her back to the steps. She sat down heavily. Cloud gave her a look. "Get a hold of yourself. Don't touch the mako if you can help it." This was directed to Cid and Barret as well. Lana nodded shakily and took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself. _Just the thought of children being brought in here and experimented on… even Sephiroth - ugh, I can't stand it!_

Cid used the Venus Gospel to swing himself across to balance on the upward-curved edges of the door, over the body of the scaled boy. He looked down grimly, swallowed as though the sight made him ill, and then bent to peer inside the pod.

"There's two pipes – one for pumping the mako in and the other for draining it, probably. Hey, what's this?" To Cloud's dismay, Cid reached inside the pod with both hands. After groping and tugging at something for a few minutes, he straightened and gave the rest of them a look at what he held in his gloved hand. A glowing yellow materia, severed at its core into two hemispheres.

"#$," Cid said eloquently, and passed it carefully to Cloud. "Guess this has something to do with the brat after all." He swung himself out of the middle of the mako puddle again and peered inside the next tank. "This one's a Command materia, too."

Cloud spent a few minutes looking the cracked Command materia over, then tucked it away in a pocket. "Okay. Check the tanks. See if they're all Command. Barret, stick with Lana."

"I'm all right." The soldier insisted, but her voice was distracted and subdued. Barret pushed her off in front of him with a mutter about Shinra and women in general.

Two thirds of the room were dedicated to Command materia, with the remaining third containing Independent orbs. The humans that had been imprisoned in the Command tanks seemed to be faring better than those in the Independent tanks, but all of the once-human specimens had suffered from heavy mako crystallisation. Lana made a slight gagging sound as she walked past the body they had freed from the tank. Already the mako and the cold air had begun to anchor the body and its puddle of mako to the door.

Cloud seemed equally disturbed. He beckoned the small group out of the pod room before he spoke to them. "Let's fan out and search the rest of the lab. If there are Command and Independent materia here, there are bound to be Support, Summon and Magic materia elsewhere. Shinra – Hojo in particular - never did anything by halves."

Reeve dumped a handful of Gil onto the counter and tucked his weapon and ammunition away as the shopkeeper sorted through it. 'Seth' stood with his arms folded near the door, not even bothering to look at the assorted blades. What would have been the point? The Masamune was the perfect sword. He looked down imperiously as Feather sidled past him to look at a display of throwing knives. Aeris' eyes caught his and he felt a twisting of guilt.

"I don't need to look for any weapons either." She confided softly. "Cloud still has my Princess Guard back in Tifa's bar in Kalm." She took his arm companionably, ignoring his slight protest, and smiled. "I shouldn't need it before we get a chance to go back there, don't you think?"

Sephiroth _thought_ she was doing a very good job of pretending not to be completely repulsed by him. "That is probably true." He agreed without enthusiasm. He freed his arm of hers and did his best to look forbidding and unapproachable. Aeris merely rolled her eyes.

"Are you feeling all right, sweet heart?" She asked benignly after a while. Sephiroth had a silent apoplexy and died on the floor. Seth, noticing the curious stare of Weapon Shoppe owner, took her hand and turned to her with a fond smile.

"Of course, my love, I'm absolutely fine."

Aeris blushed, and Sephiroth cursed himself, glad she was facing away from the prying eyes of the owner. She gathered herself and managed, "That's good." Noticing his warning glare at the owner, she added, "Shall we wait outside? Are you nearly done, Reeve?"

The other man nodded. "I've got everything I need. Ready to go, Feather?" Four pairs of eyes turned to the woman, whose own apple green orbs were fixed on a set of six slender throwing knives.

"You like those? Eight thousand Gil for the lot and I'll even throw in the scabbards." The merchant offered, his attention snapping from the Cetra to the older girl in an instant. Feather wasn't paying any attention to anyone else in the store, her eyes and mind focussed solely upon the knives. She traced her fingers along them lovingly, and before any of them could object, swept all six of them up into the air. Reeve let out a cry of horror that stalled in his throat as the blades fell…

…only to be deftly caught up by Feather's fingertips and sent soaring back into the air in a flashing silver dance. Aeris laughed delightedly at Feather's juggling and clapped her hands like a child. "That's fantastic, Feather!"

The other girl's eyes were narrowed in fierce concentration. Sephiroth's eyes followed the blades as hers did, unwittingly moving so that he stood before Aeris. "Reeve…" Feather murmured softly. "Move out of the way." As Reeve hurried to do so, the shopkeeper cleared the way to a man-shaped target on the wall. Reeve made a soft, anxious sound in his throat.

"I'm not sure this is such a good idea." He said, watching the whirling blades.

Feather took three steps sideways and plucked knife after knife from the air around her. Each of the blades thudded solidly into the wall just behind the mannequin, on either side of the torso, between the legs, on either side of the neck and just above the head. The shopkeeper let out a braying laugh. "What were you aiming at?"

Feather's brows drew together. "…only to immobilise." She said at last. "It was… part of…" Her eyes clouded, and she let out a defeated sigh. "I don't remember."

The shopkeeper tugged the knives from the wall with grunts of effort. "Well, ma'am, if that's what you were aiming for, then you did well. The blades suit you. Y'can take 'em for seven, with the belts and sheaths." He said, laying the knives out on the counter. Reeve glanced at Aeris, who nodded once, and dug into his wallet for more Gil. As the 'happily married couple' went to wait outside, he spared a glance at the quiet, mysterious woman at his side. She gave him a vague but purely happy smile. He smiled back, and wondered who in Hell she was.

It was dark in the deep sea complex. The winds chased each other, in through the gaping hole in the southern wall, along the corridors and sweeping around in circles in the central docking bay, where the ocean beneath the grating had only begun to thaw. Somehow the wind had managed to chill even the room that was cut off from all else. His room.

"It seems that your warning did not have the desired effect, Chocobo."

The voice, though cultured, had a roughness to it. It was by no means a displeasing voice, rich and deep like the earth with a faint rasping quality. One could almost imagine it was the voice of the Planet, made masculine and discernible to human ears.

"Guess not." The second voice was lighter and feminine, an indestructible ray of light even in the chill darkness of the room. "Who knew they'd like the idea of being pancakes?" A third voice, also female, voiced a low snort of laughter. The annoyed lack of Voice One silenced Voice Three instantly, and made Chocobo cough once, nervously.

It was a while before Voice One spoke again. It gave Chocobo plenty of time to feel guilty over her failure, and plenty of time for the so far silent voice in the room to squirm and consider her defence.

"She is but a child yet. She was not to know." Low and weakened slightly by age, the second male voice's comment was unthreatening, but pointed. Voice One laughed suddenly, a laugh that echoed forever in the large room.

"You always underestimate children," He said with dark amusement. "Chocobo. Take your sister to Nibelheim with you, and finish what you started."

Chocobo and Voice Two answered at the same moment, a high voice and a low one melded into harmony. "Yes, sir."

Cait Sith had taken up a proud guard's post ten feet inside the front doors of the mansion. Occasionally his whiskers twitched as he intercepted messages from the different teams of AVALANCHE. The large stuffed moogle rocked from side to side to some silent beat, and Cait's ears twitched as he perceived voices and footsteps through his own senses. Beady eyes blinked open, and he raised his megaphone as Reeve pushed open the door.

Cait lowered the dubious weapon as the man issued a friendly wave. "Whoa, boss! What's with the haircut?"

Reeve shrugged self-consciously and ran a hand through his newly cropped hair, habit taking his hand further than it needed to go. "It was getting messy. And I don't want to be recognised too easily." Cait shrugged as the rest of their small party tramped into the front hall.

"No one else, though, huh? Too bad. Aeris could've done with a shearing." He said teasingly. The flower girl poked out her tongue and put her hands on her hips.

"I think it would have been a good idea for Sephiroth to have his hair cut," She opined in return. The man in question regarded them haughtily, apparently forgetting all guilt and sorrow for the time being.

"There is not a snowball's chance in Hell." He said, clipping each word off as though the very idea of cropping his hair was insulting. Feather giggled, and to Reeve's considerable surprise, did not scruple to avoid Sephiroth's glare when his piercing green eyes found her.

Aeris, in an effort to divert attention from an apparently controversial topic, clapped her hands. "Let's get started on lunch for the others. I'll bet Barret and Cid are starving."

"Is food your answer to everything?" Sephiroth snapped, stalking away. Aeris looked briefly discouraged, but tilted her head to give a wan smile.

"Pretty much." Was her light reply. "Come on, Reeve, give me a hand." The President of Neo-Shinra followed her lead and walked decisively in the direction of the kitchens, Feather trotting at his heels.

Cait Sith, fearing no retaliation, turned perkily to the annoyed swordsman. "So, no pink dye for Sephums? Aww, what a shame!" Sephiroth's eye twitched, and he stormed away like a child in a foul temper. Cait grinned. So long as he didn't come back with the Masamune, he was safe.

He twitched his ears, adjusting his frequencies until all of AVALANCHE's connected PHS' could receive his voice. "Hey folks, it's break time. Get a move on, or Aeris the Flower Pig will eat it all before you get here!" He said, quite loud enough for Aeris to hear him. He scrambled away hastily as she charged out of the kitchen and pitched a cucumber at his head. "Mee-OW!"

"We found a lot of files on something called Imbuing. We haven't found any details on the actual process, only a lot of specimen information." Tifa explained through a mouthful of sandwich. "It sounds a lot like the Jenova Project – forced mutations and that sort of thing. But nowhere near as successful, if the records we found are anything to go by."

"It's on a much larger scale, too." Elena piped up, nursing a mug of coffee. "I went through reports on nearly seventy subjects so far. Most of them are really detailed, and span for about fifty years. I think they're also numbered and ranked according to some sort of class system, or maybe according to potential."

Red XIII nodded to this. "I think Elena is right. It seems as though they are ranked by class. There are four classes I have seen so far – P, I, M and C." Those that had studied the reports with him nodded. "I have so far found no key as to what these classes might indicate, though."

Cloud smiled and leaned back in his chair. "Great work, guys." He told them, for a moment truly pleased at their progress. Tifa basked in his approval for a few seconds, smiling across the table at Aeris and unable to resist a little bit of friendly gloating. Aeris grinned back at her and listened in to Cloud as he began to speak again.

"We found that the lab down there is much bigger than the one with the library and office in it. It also has two large adjoining rooms with pods like the ones in the Mt Nibel reactor. We counted about four hundred of them downstairs. As far as we can tell, each pod has one previously human specimen and one materia orb."

Tifa and Aeris both made soft sounds of disgust, and Lana shook her head miserably and stared at the ceiling. "Sick…" Tifa murmured.

"We saw Independent, Command and Magic materia in the pods. A lot of the Independent and Magic pods were broken open. I'll need Yuffie to know exactly what all of the materia are, though. I might get her down there later on, or tomorrow." Cloud continued. "So far, we haven't seen any Support or Summon materia."

"Yuffie's Leviathan and Feather's Shiva." Rude said after a brief pause. Cloud thought about it, and nodded.

"You're right. They're probably connected." He agreed. "But there aren't any more pod rooms down there. For the sake of convenience, I'd say this 'Imbuing' was all in the one location."

Lana snorted. "Please. When has Shinra ever made anything convenient? The Jenova Project was situated on Mt _Nibel_, for God's sake. The Support materia is the weakest of the lot as far as imbuing humans with power goes, so it wouldn't have to be as closely guarded. But the Summons are powerful, so they're bound to be kept somewhere more secure." Red's tail lashed excitedly and he stood with his front paws on the table.

"Perhaps the tanks in the reactor are Support tanks! Either to supplement Jenova, or to draw on her strength and increase their own with the abundant mako."

"Maybe," Cloud conceded. "We'll have to check it out. Elena, Lana, Rude, would you three like to look at it when you're done eating? Reno can go with you if he wants. Barret and Vincent will have to exterminate…" He trailed off. "Where are Vincent, Reno and Yuffie, anyway?"

Cait saluted smartly. "Still heading back, boss. Shoulda given them more warning about lunch." He added a trifle ruefully.

Elena shot a sideways glance at Rude that said: _Reno is gonna be so pissed when he has to walk back there._ Rude smiled slightly, and she smothered a giggle with her hand. Just because he was technically their superior didn't mean they were going to be mature about it. Lana stretched.

"We should probably get a move on, then." She suggested. "See you all in a couple of hours." Rude, Elena and Lana stood to file out of the long dining room.

"Okay…" Cloud closed his eyes and thought for a few moments. "Reeve, Cait and Feather, you're on dish-washing duty. Sephiroth, you're the sentry. Barret and Red can head out without Vincent, and he'll catch up to you later. Tifa and Aeris, you keep reading and Reeve can help you at that when he's done with the dishes. I'll go back to the lab with Cid and Yuffie to identify materia." He frowned, mentally counting up all the members of his crew, and nodded when he was satisfied he hadn't left anyone out. "Mosey."

A/N: Whew! This was ten word-processed pages. Gah. o0; That's almost frightening. Have I mentioned I love Cloud and his use of "Mosey"? I _love_ it. That is quite possibly the best thing about Cloud. Apart from just generally being a ditz. fond eyeroll Anyway, please remember to review, because this fic is really complicated and reviews help keep me sane – particularly when I skip things. .-;


	14. Sisterhood

Disclaimer: I own Lana, Feather, the cadet and the Imbued! The rest are all property of Square Enix. Don't sue me, because I have a sum total of $18.71 AU in my bank account! (Seriously.)

A/N: Okay, something to address – I don't know what Reno is on, either. He just decided it might be fun to piss Vincent off. That wasn't planned at all. I think he might be suicidal. In any case, please direct complaints or comments on the problems that will no doubt ensue to Reno c/o the Hojo that lives in my head. Thankyou!

In other news, I'm back from holidays, though I have to go to the beach some more in a couple of weeks. I hate the beach. More specifically, I hate sand. -.- Anyway, I'll try and get in another update before returning to Hell see: school but no promises!

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter Fourteen: Sisterhood

Reeve hung the dishcloth with a contented sigh. He had forgotten how mundanely _nice_ doing the dishes was, he hadn't done it in so long. He subsisted on a diet of takeout and expresso coffee interspersed with expensive fare when the occasional person thought that currying favour with Shinra was still a good financial move. In truth, the company itself was going downhill. Reeve didn't really care. So long as he could help to repair all the damage he'd done over the years, so long as he had his cat and his robot and his goddamn fortune cookies, he'd be a happy man.

Well, a healthy Planet and his friends might help, too. But they were such an obvious part of Reeve's little 'happily ever after' that they hardly needed mentioning. He smiled to himself and turned to Feather.

"All right, we're all done. Do you want to come and help me read all the reports in the basement, or would you like to stay up here and keep Cait and Sephiroth company?" Feather gave him a warm, contented look, reminding Reeve very much of Cait Sith when he was about to have his code rewritten.

"I'd like to stay with you," she said, "But I will stay here with Cait Sith and General Sephiroth if you would prefer."

"Well, I think reading might get a bit – hey, did you say General Sephiroth?" Reeve asked suddenly. "He hasn't been a general since… hmm. Hey, do you remember anything else about Sephiroth?"

Feather frowned in puzzlement and shook her head, her tattooed lips tugging down in faint annoyance. Reeve sighed softly as he led her from the kitchen to the main hall. "Well, maybe that's a good thing for you to do. Why don't you talk to Sephiroth about it? I'd tell you myself, but I only really met him once, at a cocktail party almost ten years ago… Anyway, you can help him guard with your new, uh, knives. And maybe you can teach Cait to juggle." Feather nodded to his suggestions, a smile lighting her features with enthusiasm and chasing away all vestiges of sorrow. Reeve felt something in his heart just melt away, and returned the smile with feeling.

Upon venturing into the main hall, they met with Vincent, Yuffie and Reno returning from Mt Nibel. Reno eyed Sephiroth with complete distrust, although this could have been because the legendary swordsman was wearing jeans and a shirt. Vincent was less obvious about his feelings – hell, Reeve could never tell exactly what the guy was thinking; why should now be any different? Only Cait and Yuffie seemed at ease.

That was surprising. Not Cait, who was practically _written_ to be at ease – as Reeve himself was so often not – but Yuffie. What sort of bond should she have with Sephiroth? He wondered if she thought he was attractive. _Nah, not Yuffie. Look at her, cool as a cucumber. She'd never be like that around someone she thought was cute. And she wouldn't leave him alone, either._ He grinned. Cait Sith had been a great way to pick up tidbits.

"Hi guys. I'm going to head down to read with Aeris and Tifa. Did Cait tell you what was happening?" Reeve asked as Feather wandered to an arm chair and pulled out one of her new blades. Reno shook his head at his boss.

"No. Your orders, sir?" He asked, words clipped and oddly formal. Reeve raised an eyebrow at him and then smiled sheepishly.

"Not from me. Cloud wants you to head back to the reactor to check out the mako tanks with Lana, Rude and Elena."

Reno made a comical face of despairing 'why me?'. "Man! I knew 'Laney was smirking at something… 'see you soon'… yeah, right." He continued muttering to himself as Reeve turned to Yuffie.

"Cloud needs you in the lab to ID some materia when you're done here. And Vincent, you're still exterminating, only with Red and Barret this time." Yuffie made a noise of disgust and stormed vengefully from the room. Reeve blinked in surprise and turned to Vincent. "What was _that_ about?"

"Why ask me?" He intoned rhetorically, and turned to slowly trace Yuffie's footsteps into the kitchen. Reno shrugged and winked, turning to trot after Yuffie and Vincent with remarkable cheerfulness.

"See ya, boss."

When Reno entered the dining room, Yuffie was sitting in close to the table, elbows planted defiantly on either side of her plate. She was eating quickly but sullenly. In a rare moment of charity he decided to get her a drink instead of teasing her about her very princess-like table manners. She looked up at him in surprise when a glass was shoved under her nose, and he gave her a half-smile. "Cool down, Yuffs. What's up?"

He was surprised by the level of hurt in her grey eyes when she answered. "Materia! That's all everyone thinks I'm good for… I'm sick of it, you know? I'm a ninja, dammit, and I'm just as good as any one of them." She said hotly, snatching her glass of water and chugging it furiously. Reno sat down next to her and started piling a napkin with food while he tried to think of something to say. He wondered where in the hell Valentine had disappeared to, and when he looked up at Yuffie again he suddenly became aware of the man's presence at the head of the table. Reno very nearly spat out his mouthful of water, but with the aid of long practise, he stared searchingly at Vincent past Yuffie's sullen profile. _How in hell'd I miss him?_

The answer to that was plain. Vincent fit here. He fit in that chair, at the head of this table. Or at least, his image seemed to. Reno felt something ice cold run down his spine. Valentine was dangerous. It didn't matter that he was in AVALANCHE; the demons inside him didn't care about that. Valentine had seemed to melt seamlessly into the background – no, the foreground. He was very much _there_. Reno just hadn't noticed him.

He didn't like to admit how frightening he found that thought.

Instead, he picked up a sandwich and shoved it into his mouth. And then another, as he stood. And when he was finished, he downed his glass of water in a few gulps and made a loud, disruptive "Aaa…" of satisfaction. He tied his bundle of food up furoshiki-style and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.

"Well, cheer up, Yuffs. I'm off. Better start walking." He winked at her and offered a vague wave. Yuffie made a noise of protest.

"Reno! Stay here. Take a break for once." She said seriously, and added, "You're making the rest of us look bad."

He very nearly considered it. But Valentine's movement broke his brief reverie; he looked away, frowning at the window as though he paid them no mind. Reno almost felt sorry for the guy.

"Nah," He said lazily. "Gotta keep in mind, kid, I'm getting paid for this." He offered her a cheeky salute and sauntered from the room. Yuffie sighed, but her mouth twitched into a half smile. _Dammit__, he's right._ She finished her sandwich half-heartedly, and started when Vincent's hand snakes into her vision to take her plate.

"I assume you are finished?" He inquired politely. Yuffie turned around to look at him, and was surprised by the brief expression of concern and pain she saw on his face. He seemed to realise just how open he was, for his face immediately hardened into his usual shield of apathy. He could do nothing about his eyes except refuse to meet hers.

"Vinnie? What's the matter?"

"…" Vincent did not respond at once, and received a scowl for his silence. "…be careful, will you not?" He said at last, stacking her plate and glass atop his own in the crook of his claw arm. She blinked.

"Careful? What do you mean?"

Vincent shook his head slightly, thoughtful. "…nothing, Yuffie. It's nothing. Come. Cloud will be waiting for you, and I must catch up with Barret and Nanaki."

Yuffie snorted. "Yeah, materia boy is waiting. Pfft." She got up and stretched like a cat as Vincent set the crockery in the kitchen sink with a soft metallic 'clunk'.

"I am not the best person to say this…" he began, "But we as a group do not only appreciate your knowledge in that area…"

"Right. You appreciate my divine beauty, all-around sexiness and scintillating conversation." Yuffie said dryly. He could tell she was joking. She moved forward and reached a hand towards his, reconsidering when she remembered that he didn't like to be touched. "You're wrong, Vinnie." He scowled and looked up hastily, mouth open to contradict her, but she beat him to it. "You _are_ the best person to say that."

She offered him a smile that was at once grateful and sheepish, and scarpered. Vincent's face softened and he spent a few seconds contemplating his hands, inexplicably warmed by the words. Then Chaos shifted in the back of his mind and the cold found its way back into his heart. He strode from the kitchen.

Sephiroth stood in the middle of the entrance hall, occasionally glancing around at pauses in Cait Sith's chatter. He was uncertain as to why the robot and the tattooed girl were keeping him company. But although he did not care for the banter of the cat, he was not opposed to having someone guard his back. It had been too many years since he had had a companion. _Zack_. He had been the last. Sephiroth had known the young SOLDIER even in Midgar. He frowned and paced restlessly across the room. Those memories hurt.

The flash of one of Feather's knives brought his sword up in front of him. Cait Sith was immediately on alert, but the girl's eyes were focussed only on the whirling blades in the air above her. Sephiroth relaxed his stance and replaced the Masamune in its scabbard. Feather caught her knives and smiled at him.

"Don't be alarmed, General." She said quietly. In anyone else he might have suspected sarcasm, but there was something intrinsically trustworthy about Feather. That would have been enough to keep him away from her had she not openly expressed distaste at violence in general. When they had called back at Jenny's, the woman had made even more of her suggestive remarks, thoroughly humiliating Aeris. The flower merchant had tried to be cheerful about it, but Jenny's bold comments made Sephiroth's blood boil. As they walked back to the mansion, Aeris had finally broken down, absolutely mortified, with her cheeks bright red and flustered. Reeve had been affronted for Aeris' sake, and had jokingly suggested that Sephiroth kill Jenny, merely in order to lighten the mood. It had not worked, though some part of Sephiroth's mind had been seriously considering it. Feather had looked absolutely horrified, and had almost begun to cry as she tried to explain with words like 'honour' and 'protection' and 'necessity'. It had taken Reeve a while to explain to her satisfaction that it was only a figure of speech, and that he would never actually consider such a barbaric option.

Sephiroth nodded at Feather's words, and without knowing exactly why, he sat down. Feather watched him with a kind expression. He did not feel offended or discomforted by her scrutiny. Nor was he particularly surprised at her words when she next spoke.

"General Sephiroth, will you tell me of your past?" Her voice was polite, not wishing to make him at all uncomfortable, not meaning to intrude. The cat atop the motorised moogle made a soft, forlorn yowl.

"You don't wanna hear about that stuff, kid." He told her in protest. Sephiroth glared at the crowned feline.

"Shut up." He told it quietly.

Feather reached out and lifted Cait down from his mog to settle him in her lap. "I do," she said seriously, her fingers scratching behind his ears as the moogle stilled. "I remember nothing except that Sephiroth was the General of the Shinra army, and that Midgar loved him as they did no other. Even as they feared his power, they worshipped it." The pale, wraith-like imitation of Sephiroth's mako green eyes looked up at him and were filled with a heart-breaking pride. "I don't remember what you did. Only that Midgar was full and rich and happy with you. With belief in you."

Sephiroth smiled rather bitterly. "Yes. I was the only god they had." He said. He tilted back his head to rest it on the back of the armchair he had chosen, and he laughed.

Tifa leaned on one of the shelves as she read through what seemed like (and in all likelihood, was) her thousandth report. So many of these people, taken from so many villages… all because they had had the 'potential' to make this project work. They'd been taken from Nibelheim, for Midgar, even from Glacier Village and Wutai. Tifa glanced over to where Aeris was sitting, legs curled around to the side as she read. It had been a shock to the flower merchant when they had started finding Gast's signature in the folders. Tifa hadn't been quite so surprised. A Shinra scientist was a Shinra scientist – she hadn't met a single one whom she could think of as a decent human being. Hojo, Gast, Ayuki – not even Vincent's beloved Lucrecia had sounded promising. Even though he spoke of her in admiration, hearing about the woman made Tifa feel ill. No matter who she had really loved, Lucrecia had certainly been unfaithful to _someone._ And how could a woman _do_ that to her own child? To _anyone_ she loved?

Tifa became aware that she was crushing the papers in her hand, and relaxed them instantly. Reeve turned around and smiled weakly, understanding. A knock at the door made them both turn. Vincent entered and nodded to them in greeting. _Speak of the devil_, thought Tifa, and then with a morbid half-smile, _and four shall appear._

"Aeris. Tifa. Reeve. Would it be easier to move the remaining files into the house, where they can be more easily read and accessed?" He asked directly. Tifa looked to her friends and shrugged.

"It'll be much nicer, reading up there." Reeve commented. "Good idea, Vincent."

The caped man shook his head. "It was not mine. Yuffie thought of it, but I was not certain if she would remember to tell you." He issued a brief bow, and exited. Reeve began taking boxes down off the shelves.

"I'll take these up and then we can start a ferry line with Cait." He said. "We've really only got this wall once you're done with that case. The bonsai room, you think?" Whatever they may have thought, he was soon out of the room on his way back upstairs, humming something mindless under his breath. Tifa shook her head in amused exasperation and went back to her reading.

Aeris looked around herself and frowned. She had a bad feeling, somehow. As though something was on its way - a _bad_ something. She touched the black ribbon at her throat and felt slightly reassured. It was probably just the atmosphere of this place giving her the creeps. She had never really liked the mansion.

She turned her eyes back to her report. Her father's signature glared at her. Even she had always though him such a good man… she didn't understand, because here he was, listing off casualties in his experiments as though they were so many shattered or emptied milk bottles.

_"…subject M-13 unfortunately lost all sight, and later ceased to move and speak at all. Attempts were made to heal the specimen, but to no avail. It seems that the more successful cases occur in those with heightened Spirit levels. However, it also seems to be true that the Spirit of those rare successes decreases with time. Many I- and C- subjects live only weeks before…"_

Aeris let out a frustrated sigh that could have masked a sob. It was horrible. She couldn't believe her own father had been involved with this – had very likely lead this entire operation! Tifa noticed the older woman's sadness and rested a gloved hand on her shoulder. Sympathetic wine-coloured eyes smiled at her, and she nodded bravely as Reeve returned. Tifa smiled at her.

"I'm going to help move boxes." She told the flower girl. "If you can finish this case, that'd be great. Then we can do the rest of the reading upstairs in the light."

Aeris nodded. She looked forward to being out of this tomb.

Sephiroth told her as he had lived it. As a teenager, he had not had many coherent memories of his childhood years, only the knowledge that he was Shinra's ultimate SOLDIER at the age of 16. After subduing the shinobi in Wutai – it had taken almost six years, ending finally with the surrender of the Wutaian government due to the death of the Lady Kisaragi by Sephiroth's sword.

Feather listened attentively, silent until the part of his life that occurred in Nibelheim six years ago. His voice was dispassionate as he told her of Jenova and Zack, of Tifa and the Shinra grunt Cloud. And it was then, as he told her of his regained memories of his childhood, that tears began to roll down her cheeks, dampening the fur of the apparently slumbering Cait Sith.

He stopped speaking abruptly. "What is it?" She struggled to speak through her unashamed grief.

"I'm sorry you had to go through it. It's not…" She shook her head furiously and very near slammed her fists down on the lounge beside her. "It's not _fair_. It isn't fair that people blame you…"

Sephiroth stared at her in silence, surprised and oddly touched. Slowly he extended her his hand. She took it gratefully, though the tears still rolled down her cheeks unchecked. "It is… fine. Do not upset yourself. I know how I was used and manipulated. It… hurt when I realised it. But looking back, I do not see how it could have gone any other way."

He took breath to continue the story, but footsteps along the corridor stopped him. He stood, Masamune in hand by the time he had straightened fully. But it was only a walking stack of boxes that upon closer inspection was revealed to be Reeve.

"Hey guys. We're gonna move the files up here for easier reading." Cait Sith whirred to life again with a suspicious sounding _CLICK_ at the end of Reeve's words. "Cait, Sephiroth, you wanna help – hey, Feather, what'sa matter?" Reeve dumped the boxes he was holding rather carelessly and walked over to take Feather's shoulders.

"Nothing. I'm all right. I was… sad." She accepted and returned the man's affectionate hug, resting her chin on his shoulder briefly. "Sephiroth was telling me what I don't remember about him."

"Oh." Reeve said in a small voice. "Well. That makes more sense than it doesn't."

Sephiroth sheathed his katana and offered a slight smile. "I remembered you, once Jenova's influence was gone from my mind. A cocktail party, if you recall. You were a new employee then, with some very intriguing ideas about the plate design." He quirked a brow. "Most of which I presume were never put into effect because of their cost, I presume. Air and water purifiers, the old concept of letting land lie fallow…"

Reeve coughed. "Yeah," he said, a slight blush and a grin on his face. "I'm redesigning by myself this time, though. Regardless of cost. I want to repay Midgar. Give it back what it lost. They think it's 'cause of Meteor, but Neo-Shinra… well, most of it anyway… know otherwise."

Sephiroth, to his surprise, chuckled. "Neo-Shinra indeed." Reeve could have sworn he sounded almost pleased.

"Well," the President said. "Shall we get started on the boxes? I was thinking maybe in the room with the safe. Y'know, near the bonsai room."

"You got it, boss. Show me the files!" Cait Sith said enthusiastically. Reeve laughed and they went. Sephiroth followed soon after, leaving Feather to ponder all she had just heard.

Yuffie squinted into the pod she stood next to, rubbing her fingers over the glass port hole to try and make the inside clearer. "Independent… umm… looks like a Cover." Next tank. "Independent; Cover." Next. "Independent… Counter, I think. Hey Cloud, you're keeping count, right?"

"I am." Cid muttered wearily. "Five Chocobo Lures, Covers, HP-MP-Speed-Magic-Luck-EXP-Gil Plus and a Counter, and that's just the Independents. Come on, kid, we've still got the whole other room."

"Hey, you wanna come over _here_ and tell me to hurry up? I'm _workin__'_ here." Yuffie snapped irritably. She upped her pace anyway, more because she was sick of the lab than out of concern for Cid. By the end of the hour, they'd finished the first chamber with a count of five each of all the command materia Yuffie had heard of, and five each of nearly all the Independent materia.

"No Underwater Materia." Yuffie commented as they crossed the lab on their way to the other tank room. "Guess we're the only ones who found that one."

"Guess so," Cloud agreed. "The next room is full of Magic materia…"

"Woo." Yuffie grinned. "Think we can still use 'em? Be prime pickings if the mako's made 'em stronger. Doesn't look like it has, though."

"How d'you mean?" Cid asked, breaking off in the middle of reciting their tallies to himself.

"Well… materia usually glows when it's strong. But all of this materia is cloudy, like my Leviathan." Yuffie told them as she pushed open the door to the second tank room. "Oh grossness. Mako on my shoes."

The second room had more broken tanks than the first, so most of the floor was glowing bright green with the puddles of mako there. Yuffie began cataloguing materia again, occasionally making disgusted sounds as she stepped over the crystallised bodies that had broken out of the tanks and died on the floor.

"Fire… Fire… Fire… man, these aren't even high level – nowhere near Mastered. No wonder they didn't work. Fire… Fire… Fire… eeeeeeeeew. Okay, _that_ one was level three. Fire, by the way, Cid." She stepped over the mutated corpse, and froze when she glanced over her shoulder to see two unfamiliar women through the glass. "Cid, look!"

Even as she pointed and Cid turned one of them grinned, and suddenly both were inside the room, standing atop the tanks two rows above Yuffie. As Cid coughed and spat out his cigarette, (and lost count, Yuffie bet herself grimly) Cloud drew Ultima Weapon and the ninja danced gracefully backward to drop into a defensive stance between the two men.

"So you're a materia reader? Interesting." The speaker had slightly tawny blond hair that fell in tasteful disarray to just above her shoulders, the tips teased to flick outward. Her fringe covered one of her eyes completely. Her expression was fierce, her purple lips tugged aside in a smirk, but her clothing was covered in pink and purple ribbons, and the visible eye was a bright and cheery shade of blue despite the glare it dispensed. The other girl giggled and twirled her feather boa. Cid finally stopped hacking his lungs out.

"You! That's her, kid, the Chocobo-Imbued." He gestured at the girl on the right, who flicked her boa again.

"Aww, you remember me!" She said with a wink and a leer. "But you didn't remember my warning. Shame on you, Cid Highwind, shame on you."

Cid clenched his teeth. Yuffie clenched her fists. "Hey, you two bimbos better tell me where my father is! I _know_ you're part of this. Tell me where he is!" She shouted. C.I. sniffed and turned her nose up in the air. Her companion gave Yuffie a searching look.

"Leviathan's daughter… yes, of course. But, it is not our place. We came for a purpose." She said cryptically.

"Who exactly are you, and what's this purpose you're talking about?" Cloud demanded. The Chocobo-Imbued preened.

"You already know _me_." She said with a crystalline smile. "This is my twin sister – the Moogle Imbued." Said woman's smirk grew a tiny bit wider. Cid rolled his eyes.

"Good grief. I had to say it." He muttered. "So this Imbued thing some kind of fluffy animal club?"

The Moogle-Imbued shook her head in annoyance. "Shiva would not be pleased to hear you say that! But we don't have time for this. Stay out of our way, AVALANCHE, and _stop_ poking into other peoples' business." Her mouth flattened out into an impish grin. "Oh. And you might want to run. I've heard mako steals human souls."

She tapped one of her fingers in the air, and a mako pod imploded, gushing the green viscous liquid it held all over the floor. Another pod imploded when she twitched another finger. Cid knew what was coming. "Get outta here you buncha gawking #!&$!" He yelled, grabbing the Venus Gospel and dashing for the door just as the Moogle-Imbued lowered her entire hand.

The glass observation window shattered as C.I. pushed her hands toward it. Together the pair darted to the other pod room so fast it seemed they were teleporting. The first pod room was destroyed with loud, resounding booms as Cloud, Cid and Yuffie watched in shock.

"We have to stop them!" Yuffie cried.

"Easier said than done." Cloud said. "It's too late – everything we found… it's crushed."

"I'm _not_ giving up that easily!" Yuffie screamed. "They know where my father is! And they're totalling everything that'll take me to him!" She flung her Conformer at the Imbued as they emerged from the dust, dripping mako.

C.I. raised a hand, and the weapon was blasted back toward Yuffie, grazing her arm. The blast of pressure flung Yuffie back against a steel tank with a sickening crunch. Yuffie slid down the tank slowly, leaving behind the bright red sheen of her blood on the metal. Cloud made an incoherent sound and rushed to her side. Cid gripped his spear tightly and snarled. "#$ you! Damn you both to Hell!"

The sisters blurred out of view and Cid doubled over with a gasp and started wheezing helplessly at the ground. They appeared again before Yuffie and Cloud, and the Moogle-Imbued looked disapproving. "Don't push your luck, Leviathan's daughter." They winked out of sight again. Machines exploded, metal crumpled like tissue paper in their wake. And then they were gone.

Somewhere in the Mt Nibel end of the corridor that led from the mansion to the reactor, Vincent paused. An odd flutter around the edges of what could loosely be called his soul; a disturbed feeling as Chaos wrenched itself from dormancy and glanced around with fangs bared. Vincent closed his eyes.

"…we should go back. Something is not right."

Aeris looked up from her reading at a muffled _thud_ that echoed through the subterranean corridors. She shrugged. Maybe one of her friends had dropped a box, or bumped into something. Then the room trembled slightly. Aeris' eyes widened at another _thud_, only this time it was more like a _boom_. Dust trickled in a thin stream from the ceiling.

Aeris immediately crouched to press her palms to the earth. She closed her eyes and _reached_, past her own mind and into the consciousness of the Planet. There was nothing happening to the rocks below her; the Planet's movements gave her no answers as to the tremors.

"So it's not you… what is it?" Aeris asked the empty room, and the Planet. She received only vague images in return. **Lifestream. Bleeding. Lost. Lost** And then on a completely different vein, an image of Yuffie. **Hurting. Coming! **Aeris' eyes snapped open as the door creaked. "Who's there?" She demanded, fear in her voice.

Sephiroth stepped inside and said, "It's me. Something is here. Did you feel the tremors?"

Aeris nodded, her eyes wide. "It isn't the Planet. It's something_ else_."

Sephiroth came closer, towering above the Cetra. His eyes were fierce. "Don't worry. I won't let any harm come to you." His eyes narrowed suddenly, and he whirled, hand to the hilt of his Masamune. The Chocobo-Imbued and the Moogle-Imbued entered, and C.I.'s eyes widened a little.

"You've grown up." She commented.

Her sister scowled. "So it's been a while. But we don't have time to stay and chat. _Especially_ with a Cetra slave-driver." Her brilliant eyes narrowed, and Aeris fell to her knees, gasping. Sephiroth did not waste time gaping at the Cetra's condition.

With speed that was almost supernatural he darted forward and lashed out with the vicious length of the legendary blade. The Moogle-Imbued blurred to one side, out of harm's way. In the back of his mind, Sephiroth still heard Aeris gasping. His eyes narrowed. _Again._ He feinted left, and when she blurred right, he spun and brought the Masamune around in a swift, deadly arc, barely feeling the blade sweep perfectly through flesh, severing the fingers of the Moogle-Imbued's right hand.

Her scream was startlingly loud and it rang in his ears as she staggered, gouts of blood spurting from where the appendages had once been. Sephiroth sprung back before Aeris as the Cetra made it to her feet. He noticed she looked horrified, but if she made a sound he didn't notice. The Moogle-Imbued was still screaming.

"Bastard. Thief!" C.I.'s eyes glowed. She raised her arms and the shelves splintered; the stone behind them crackled. Dust and hoarse moans of pain filled the air. The Moogle-Imbued, tears glistening in her eye, stooped to pick up her severed fingers with a choked sob.

"We weren't here to kill you," she said thickly, harshly. "But if you still want to live after that, then I suggest you run." C.I.'s eyes flashed again and the walls cracked. Dust and chunks of rock rained from the ceiling. The pair blurred from sight and after barely a moment's paused, Sephiroth sheathed the Masamune and turned to Aeris.

"Come. This room is collapsing."

He grabbed her arm and they fled the room. Not five seconds later, there was a great rending sound and just outside Nibelheim, a room-sized depression appeared as all the rock and sediment above the archive was pushed downward.

Aeris stared behind her in horror as a great slab of rock just sank down onto the archive. "Oh my… oh my God…" She gasped. "The Planet – oh no! Sephiroth, Yuffie's in trouble!"

A/N: It's not _really_ a cliffhanger. ;-) I could do much worse. In randomness, I hate materia. twitch There's a lot of it. And I hate experiments. There are a lot of test subjects. All of this adds up to one hell of a lot of mako pods. falls over, eyes spiralling dazedly

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please review and let me know.


	15. Leviathan's Daughter

Disclaimer: I am officially sick of this now. I don't own them. Nyerg. P

A/N: Heavy on the plot, with the fluff clinging determinedly to the edges. Sephiroth's story revealed, as well as a little bit on Yuffie's clan history. But, um… I don't know exactly what happened to the hometown discussion that Cloud thought happened. o0; That's given me a bit of trouble. But… we'll pretend it really happened, OK?

Oh, and **nyowpotopop** – tell your sister that Cloud actually says 'Mosey' in the game, would you? It was one of Cid and Barret's beefs with him, and it always amused me. I didn't see why saving the Planet should change 'mosey'.

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter Fifteen: Leviathan's Daughter

It was such an effort to open her eyes. The room was too bright. The ceiling reflected too much of the mid-morning rays from the window. She was only grateful that dark velvet curtains were drawn around the four-poster bed for the most part. A small crack to the right was the only gap in the curtains. Yuffie blinked dully at the ceiling as framed by the four-poster bed and frowned dazedly, sleepiness and vague pain combining to make her thought processes less than swift.

_…what am I doing here? This is… Vincent's room…_

"Vincent?" She queried. Her voice seemed loud in the room. She rolled her head toward the gap in the curtains, and felt a tugging pain in her neck. Tifa's hands pushed the gap in the curtains open, and the martial artist peered tenderly down at Yuffie, a look of open relief on her face. Tifa sat down on the side of the bed and lay her hand on Yuffie's arm, a reassuring weight through the covers.

"Vincent's sleeping now." She said soothingly, the smile in her eyes growing brighter until it tugged playfully at the corner of her mouth. "You should see him. He looks absolutely ridiculous in the window seat. How are you feeling?"

Yuffie thought about it as she struggled to sit up, cataloguing the various twinges she felt as she moved. Tifa made a clucking sound and shifted forward to rearrange the pillows for the young ninja. Leaning back on them, Yuffie sighed. "My head is kinda sore. My neck and shoulders ache. What happened to everyone? What happened to the lab?"

Tifa was quick to reassure her. "Everyone is okay. No one was badly hurt, except for you. Reno was whinging about his ribs, but there's nothing wrong with him that wasn't there before. And Sephiroth stopped the Imbued from hurting Aeris…" Yuffie raised her eyebrows at Tifa's chagrined amusement. "He cut off three of the Moogle-Imbued's fingers."

This startled Yuffie into a peal of laughter, which she silenced at Tifa's hand motions – though more because the action had hurt her shoulders. Yuffie regained control of herself after a moment and grinned at her friend. "So, everyone's okay, then?"

Tifa's mouth formed a line, her rusted eyes far away and concerned. "I'm a little worried about Cid… he's been coughing a bit more than usual." Yuffie was about to make a joking dismissive comment when Tifa went on, fiddling with the tips of her gloved fingers. "And I think Vincent took more damage than he let on…"

"Huh?" Yuffie's stunning wit was transformed with the sentence. "What do you mean?"

Tifa shrugged, bemused. "Well, you know him – sleeps with one eye open. But I checked on everyone before, and Vincent was dead to the world." At Yuffie's furrowed brow, she smiled. "Don't worry about him, Yuffie. He's very resilient."

"I guess." Yuffie was not convinced. She spent a few seconds staring blankly at her hands, and Tifa stood up and searched through her materia belt-pouch for a few seconds, withdrawing a Restore materia after a few seconds.

"We didn't want to use magic while you were still asleep unless we could help it." She cast, her voice soft and breathy, and the pain across Yuffie's shoulders and the ache at the back of her skull dissipated. Yuffie wriggled and settled herself more comfortably against her pillows. Tifa, noticing her friend's drooping eyelids, leaned across and pulled Vincent's snow white cotton sheets and dark quilt up around the ninja's shoulders. "Get some rest, Yuffie. You need it."

"But… Tifa, where's my Conformer?"

Tifa laughed out loud, her hands flying to her hips. "That's not important right now! Go to _sleep_, you _thing._"

To her surprise, Yuffie actually nodded – after she'd finished giggling. "'Kay. But you go to sleep too, Teef. Ya don't need to watch me any more." She said. Or meant to say, Tifa presumed – the sentence had trailed off into a long, sleepy slur as Yuffie's head slowly drifted toward and then came to rest on her pillows. The older woman shifted herself carefully off the bed and quietly left the room. When she thought about it, she _was_ a little tired. She smiled at the thought that reading got to her more than fighting did. She snuck down the hall a few steps and pushed open the door quietly.

She looked around the room to be sure that nothing was amiss. Aeris was twisted oddly in the bedclothes, her coppery hair spilling over the pillow and glimmering softly in the scanty light. Feather slept like the dead, her breaths hardly disturbing the sheets. Reeve was snoring softly, having made up a pallet on the floor next to the piano, with cushions snatched from a rotting couch in the upstairs store-room. And bathed in the pale moonlight, crammed into the window seat, Vincent Valentine slept on, blissfully unaware of the barkeeper's scrutiny. Her own bed was empty. She had known neither Vincent nor Reeve would take it, even though she had assured them both it was all right.

She jumped as she noticed a large, rounded dark patch moving away from the door to the room in which Cloud, Reno and Sephiroth slept.

"Psst!" It said, and Cait Sith moved forward so that she could see him properly. He looked troubled, though how he managed this with his robotic face manoeuvred into a perpetual grin was beyond her. "Tifa, I've got somethin' to show you. Meet me n' Cloud in the kitchen."

Blink. "Um. Sure, Cait. I'll… go down and make some coffee." Cait gave her a more genuine happy look and whirred quietly away through the darkness, presumably to wait for Cloud. What on earth was this about?

Ten minutes later saw Tifa and Cloud, tousle-haired and yawning, in the kitchen, sipping gingerly at their steaming coffee as Cait Sith's moogle bounced anxiously on the balls of his big pink feet in front of them. The cat looked from Cloud to Tifa, and when the leader of AVALANCHE swiped a hand through his hair and nodded, Cait started to speak in a humbled tone that sounded not at all like his own.

"Feather an' me were listenin' to Sephiroth today, n' I managed to get most of it on tape. Figured y'all might wanna hear it." The cat looked slightly shamefaced as Tifa slammed her coffee cup down on the table.

"Cait Sith!" She hissed hotly, eyes smouldering. "That's awful! Whatever he had to say was none of our business!" She pursed her lips and crossed her arms furiously, glowering at the robot. Cloud sighed.

"That was pretty rude, Cait." He agreed, sleepiness taking most of the conviction from his voice. "What'd he say that was so important that you had to record it?" The robot made a slightly vexed, slightly ashamed _mrowl_ing sound.

"Well she wanted to know about him, what she couldn't remember, and he sat back and told her just about everything that ever happened to him! I thought we might like to know for future reference, seeing's everythin' about the guy's so damn confused all the time!" His ears twitched back in annoyance, and he ruined his already less-than-formidable appearance by hurriedly resettling the gold crown on his head. He looked smug as Cloud became a lot more awake.

"Let me hear it." He said simply. Tifa made a vague sound of dissent, but made no move to leave. Cait's grin returned.

"Yes, boss." He chimed sweetly. The cat closed his eyes and they heard a series of muted clicks and static before the smooth, pleasant timbre of Sephiroth's voice became clear.

_"At sixteen, I had no clear memories of my childhood. I recalled vigorous training and visits to laboratories for the stimulants given to those in SOLDIER, but of any parents or siblings I may have had, I had no recollection. At that time, I know that my… mentor, I suppose… Professor Gast was dead, and had been for some eight years. He had been important to me, though why I did not know. Among a thousand other things of no consequence, I also knew that I was the pride of the Shinra army, having risen to SOLDIER First Class in a very short time._

_"My lack of memories of anything that could have constituted a childhood made me a very remote person. Many of my underlings, and even my colleagues, found me difficult to deal with, though they recognised my skill. Over the next years I rose swiftly through Shinra hierarchy and proved myself to be of great worth not only as a soldier, but as a tactician. I secured the position of General with the defeat of Wutai. I was twenty-one at that time._

_"But after Wutai, I had much time to think, and because of what I thought of then as boredom and under stimulation, I began to remember things. Prominent in these recollections was the presence of not only Professor Gast, but his… protégé, Professor Hojo – at the time I assumed that these were merely regulation visits to the labs as part of the process of becoming a SOLDIER. But I was a child in those memories – far younger than anyone I had seen admitted into the ranks of the Shinra army._

_"Apart from that, I remembered my mother – a woman with soft white features and porcelain flesh, her lips always curved in the same mocking smile, her eyes never quite looking at me… she always looked past me in those memories. The voice I heard in what I thought was a memory was soft and buzzing, hypnotic. The voice of my mother, whose name I now recalled – Jenova._

_"But even though those memories returned, I still couldn't remember my earliest years. Snatches of conversation or images would come to me if I was reminded of them, but almost as soon as I thought about the images a fog would descend, and I would hear the voice of my mother and think no more about it._

_"Finally, when I was twenty-five, I went with another SOLDIER First Class and two lower-ranking men to Nibelheim. The SOLDIER… I had worked with him several times before. Zack…_

_"At the entrance to the town, we talked about… our hometowns. I couldn't remember a place I called home – nothing but the Shinra building and the labs. It got me thinking, because there was something very _familiar_ about Nibelheim. That night… I really began to wonder, and even the voice of my mother in my head couldn't silence the questions I asked of myself._

_"On the following day we went to the reactor on the mountain. The bridge broke and to reach the reactor we travelled through the caves… we found a mako spring. Standing there, speaking with our guide… our guide was Tifa. I didn't tell you that. But she was. And Cloud was one of the lower-ranking men – the one that wasn't lost when the bridge collapsed._

_"In any case, standing near the mako spring, I remembered the livid face of Professor Hojo, shouting and spitting and ordering me never to use such an unscientific term as 'magic'. In that memory, I was only about fifteen. Then, it made me laugh that Hojo could be such a pedant. But the memory carried with it such a flood of resentment and hate that I began to wonder what Hojo had done to me to cause me to feel that way towards him. I did not have strong feelings towards many… I was very cold to everyone I knew. So it was strange that I should hate him so._

_"I dwelt on that feeling as we made the rest of the trek to the reactor, lost in my thoughts and puzzled by strange images of the past. And once we reached the mako refinery, I was seized by a sudden fear that… seeing those creatures in the tanks, with their stencilled letters and numbers, and the word 'JENOVA' emblazoned across them… I feared that the creature Jenova that dwelt in that reactor was the closest thing I could have to a mother, that I was created here in Nibelheim, that I was not truly human at all._

_"At that time, I was so furious and horrified that I came directly back to Nibelheim. Prompted by my memories, I came to this mansion… went down into the first basement, in the northern wing of the house. I stayed in that house until I had read every last book in that library, and what I found did not discount my suspicions. I wasn't human, only the worthless creation of one. Jenova was my mother, and the frozen monsters in the mako pods were my brethren._

_"I realised then that Jenova's voice was not one preserved in my memories. She was there, alive inside me, inside the reactor, as real as I was. She called to me, and I went… and Jenova took the place of my sanity. She was the only thing I could believe in, the closest thing to my heart and mind. She was part of me. She was inside me. I believed all that she said. After years of Shinra lies… she was the only one I could trust._

_"So I went to deliver her. I took her head from that sealed room in the reactor, and I was merciless to those who came between me and my mother. Zack and Tifa… they were seriously wounded. But it was the little cadet, Cloud, who turned my sword against me and flung me into the mako pit below._

_"I slept then. For years and years, until only recently when Jenova's strength was whole… for Reunion, which Hojo had planned ever since I failed as the culmination of the Jenova Project._

_"…what is it?"_

They heard a quiet sobbing from Feather in the background, and then Cait Sith halted the recording with a loud click. Cloud stared blankly, his eyes the empty blue of a 'Fatal Error' computer screen. Tifa's hands moved from rubbing at each other to rubbing the base of her sternum, discomfited, hovering over the scar she still bore from that day, nearly seven years ago.

He sounded so calm as he was telling it. As though it had happened to a different person entirely, as though he had been but a disinterested bystander who had better things to watch, better places to be. Tifa's forehead bunched in a desperately unhappy frown, trying to understand how a human being – for certainly he was human now, if he hadn't been before – could be so detached from everything around him. How could he be so calm and rational about his own life, his own memories? Tifa's hand went out to her stone cold coffee and she cradled it as though it could still give her warmth. Cloud, looking preoccupied, lay a hand on her shoulder. She jumped, and started to shiver horribly despite herself.

"It seems like he's telling someone else's story…" she said, her voice a hoarse whisper. Cloud's thumb rubbed against the fabric on her shoulder reassuringly, though he too looked thoughtful.

"According to Zack, he was likeable enough before Nibelheim. I didn't get much time to talk to him, obviously. But while Zack and I were imprisoned, before we were put in those tanks…" And it had been weeks, months before the tanks, hours and hours of boredom, yelling at the Professors, threatening, pleading… Cloud clenched his jaw to stifle the shudder that rose in him. "He always said Sephiroth had been a good guy. Distant, but a good guy. He was so confused about what had gone wrong… so angry at the Professors, not only for me and him, but because of what had gone wrong in Sephiroth." More quietly, and clutching at his own coffee with his free hand, he added, "I liked him too, before we got to Nibelheim. He was a good General. Not at all like Heidegger."

A wan smile filtered across Tifa's face. "I can't imagine he was." She agreed. "I thought he was very cold when he arrived in Nibelheim, but before that, when I'd seen him on TV… he always seemed nice. Reserved, maybe. Do you think… do you think we should show this to everyone else? It might… help them understand why Aeris isn't afraid of him."

Cloud's mouth was a hard line as he considered this. Eventually he shook his head. "No. I don't think so." Tifa started to protest, but he held up his hand. "They trust Aeris as it is, Tifa. We all do. There's no need to stir up Sephiroth by spreading this around the group."

"D'you mean to tell me that I went to all this trouble for nothin'?" Cait demanded with a despairing yowl.

"Not nothing." Cloud told the robot. "Now we know for certain – Sephiroth wasn't the one we were fighting. It was Jenova through and through. So now I know I can trust Sephiroth on his own – because Jenova is dead. I know she is. She can't control him, or me, or anyone else any more." He stood up, grabbed the cups of cold coffee, and dumped them into the sink. Cait grumbled a bit, but stilled when Tifa absently reached out to scratch behind his ears.

Cloud came back to sit at the kitchen table when Tifa had sent Cait Sith off to shut down. He swiped a hand distractedly at his hair and kneaded his eye sockets with the heel of either hand. Tifa watched him silently, not really knowing what to do or say. Cloud saved her by speaking first. "Teef… we all do trust Aeris, right? I'm not just some blind idiot walking out into the middle of a busy street?"

"We all trust Aeris, Cloud. She knows what she's doing." Tifa looked at the ground, trying to keep her face blank and knowing that it wasn't quite working, because her mouth was tugging downward and her eyebrows were pulling together as though to console each other at the terrible pain in her heart. "But she's not… she's not the only thing." She squeezed her eyes shut and stood up, facing away from Cloud. "I'm going to bed." And away she strode, not realising that Cloud's bemused blue eyes were on her retreating back.

He sat in the hard wooden chair, leaning back until he started to slide down, his chin levelling with the tabletop. When she was gone, he huffed out a breath and stared ruefully at the ceiling. "I know she's not the only thing, Teef. I'd have given up when she died if she was." A derisive chuckle directed at the ceiling. "And aren't I just a stupid clod for letting the important thing walk away all the damn time?"

It was warm beneath the sheets, the vaguest of spicy scents a comfort that masked the dull aching of her body. She frowned slightly at a low, persistent voice that nagged at her consciousness.

"Yuffie. It's time to wake up."

"…dunwnnawkup." She muttered eloquently into her pillow. She felt a weight settle beside her on the bed. Scrunching up her face to show her distaste, she rolled heavily into it. Teach it to invade _her_ bed. The impact seemed to hurt her more than the other, however – a dozen odd buckles were now sticking into her shoulder.

"Yuffie. I have your breakfast."

She made a soft whining sound in the back of her throat. "…don't _want_ breakfast… 'm _tired_…" A hesitant but affectionate hand rested on her arm, cool and unobtrusive. It held her gently apart from the buckles she had come to rest upon.

"Come, Yuffie. The rest ate hours ago." Patient and coaxing. Yuffie frowned to herself.

"…zat you, Vinnie? Tifa said you were-" _Yaaaaawn_. "-really tired."

"I'm awake now. As you should be." She opened one eye upon sensing a smile, but looking into his face she found nothing but a brief glint of amusement in the depths of his garnet eyes. "Reno and Cait Sith also volunteered to wake you. Shall I go get-?"

Yuffie jerked upright, abruptly displacing Vincent's hand. "_Gawd_ no!" She said with startling coherency, and then squinted at him sleepily. "'m up."

Vincent surveyed her with a straight face. AVALANCHE had very nearly drawn straws to see who the unlucky person would be to go and wake Yuffie. Cait and Reno had volunteered with equally diabolical grins, at which point Vincent had grit his teeth and bravely gone off to do it himself. He had a very strong feeling that if he showed even the slightest hint of amusement at he bed hair, she would clobber him with any and all she could get her hands on. The tea sitting beside the bed was within her reach, and it was still very, very hot. "So you are," he agreed obediently. "…Tifa said you asked about this."

He bent forward to pick her Conformer up off the floor. Yuffie held her arms out for it, a smile lighting her face. "You rock, Vincent! Did you go back down there and get it?" A pause, and then he nodded.

Yuffie wriggled her way into a sitting position and Vincent handed her the tea. She noticed the column of steam rising and wisely decided to let it cool before she took a sip. "So, what actually happened to the lab and stuff?"

Vincent's face seemed to tighten a little, as though there was something about it that he didn't want to let slip, but Yuffie didn't seem to notice. "After attacking you in the lab, they destroyed it completely and made for the archive, where they encountered Sephiroth and Aeris." Yuffie let out a soft giggle, her memory reminding her of just what had happened in the archive. Vincent gave her a mystified look, and continued. "They somehow caused all the rock and earth above the archive to collapse down onto it without destroying any other part of the tunnels. They ran into my party while we were on our way back, and I shot at them thinking that they must have attacked..." He trailed off briefly and Yuffie gave him a puzzled look.

"C.I. unleashed a powerful attack and immobilised me until they had escaped even Nanaki's vision. When we reached the intersection, you were unconscious and Cloud was carrying you back up to the mansion. Cait contacted the Turks, whom had also been ambushed, and they returned to Nibelheim several hours afterward. The reactor was also destroyed."

"Oh…" Yuffie's eyebrows pulled together, the stormy grey eyes seeming to exude unhappiness. "But Tifa said no one was hurt…"

"You are worst harmed." Vincent agreed. He looked as though he might say more, but his mouth formed a flat, grim line and he stared unfeelingly at the wall behind the bed. His bed. Yuffie rested her tea bowl on her knees, careful to keep one hand on it so that it didn't overbalance and spill the hot liquid everywhere.

"And what about you, Vinnie? Those Imbued are nasty. Are _you_ okay?" She asked. "Tifa said you were more beat up than you looked…"

Vincent glanced at her quickly, his eyes widening almost imperceptibly. He had taken more damage than he had lead the rest of the group to believe, but he hadn't thought his ruse would be so obviously seen through. He supposed it was because he had been utterly exhausted, even before he took on the role of monitoring Yuffie while she slept. He had spent his last reserves of strength in making certain that her injuries were not getting worse, keeping a close watch on her until Tifa had offered to take his place.

"C.I.'s attack was not pleasant." He murmured absently. "I was… surprisingly tired afterward."

Yuffie pursed her lips. Vincent was always pushing himself because he usually had more endurance than regular humans. But he didn't seem to realise that even he needed rest every once in a while. "Vinnie, you might be stronger than the rest of us mere mortals, but it doesn't mean you can do any more, you know." She said scoldingly, annoyance burning away some of the lighter tones in her eyes. "No one else has to deal with Chaos…"

She very nearly clapped her hands over her mouth. Vincent gave her a hard look as she regarded him anxiously, and then stood. "We are having a discussion in the main hall. Eat and get up. You may wish to change your clothing."

Even though she thought she had insulted him somehow, she retorted, "You saying I smell, Vincent?"

At another time, as another person, Vincent might have had a quip ready to slip off his tongue to tease the young ninja into a humiliated fury. Instead, his eyes were blank and unreadable as he looked down at her. "You have blood all over your shirt." He said quietly, and left without further explanation. Yuffie looked down at herself and discovered that he was right.

"Oh gross!" She commented, her eyes widening a little. What the hell had happened to her? She stared a few moments longer and flexed her shoulders, making a disgusted face at the feel of the crusted blood on her back and down her arm. She picked up the toast Vincent had made her. It was apparently not his forte – it was all burnt around the edges. But she was warmed by the effort (and the mental image of the man making toast).

Her breakfast finished, she made her way to the nearest bathroom, cradling her Conformer in her arms. She twisted herself oddly to examine her back in the mirror once she'd had a quick shower, and grimaced at what she saw. A long jagged half-healed scab stretched from her neck down to the lower end of her left shoulder blade. She must've caught the bone on a bolt or something as she slid down the side of that machine in the basement. Showering had softened the scab, and her twisting had pulled it open a little so that it had started to bleed again. She hissed and dabbed at it a bit before pulling on a shirt. She'd have to put a potion on that later.

Her arm was healed nicely, though, with only a faint white stroke to show where her own Conformer had come flying back at her. She snorted at it. To think that a bolt had done worse than her favourite shuriken. She gave the weapon a derisive look. "I guess I should be grateful you didn't cut your master up too badly, huh?"

Once more clean and as chipper as she was likely to get with the way things were going, she sauntered down the main hall barefoot, balancing her crockery along her arm. As soon as she came into the main hall, Aeris gave a relieved gasp and jumped to her feet.

"Oh, Yuffie, are you all right? The Planet told me you were hurting, but I didn't understand until it was too late…" She said miserably, her hands wringing each other tightly. Yuffie was tempted for a brief moment to stagger about dramatically and bemoan her arm and shoulder, but she shrugged and gave the Cetra a smile.

"No biggie! You didn't think a little scratch like that was going to put the Great Ninja Yuffie out of action, did ya?" She winked and walked into the kitchen to dump her plate and tea cup, ignoring the fact that she was being gaped at. However, when she came back into the room a few seconds later, people still stared at her like she'd grown an extra head. "_What?_"

"Jes' wonderin' why yer so damn chipper." Barret muttered under his breath. Cid chuckled, wheezing more than Yuffie thought he should have.

"Did Vince slip you a Hyper?"

Yuffie's good mood wavered as she glared at them. She knew they'd been worried about her. She knew she was usually a grouch when she woke up, or had been when she was younger and more reliant on a good night's sleep rather than cat naps. But instead of a retort or a whine, she sat down on the floor, leaning her back against the lounge, and didn't deign to reply. Cloud's lips twitched. Her death glare would have put Vincent to shame if the man himself hadn't been directing the same glare at the room from just behind her. Seeing those twin glares hone in on his attempts to hide his amusement, he cleared his throat.

"Glad to see you're up and about, Yuffie." He told her quickly, then changed the subject completely. "We were just talking about the Imbued. They kept calling you 'Leviathan's daughter'. Any idea why?"

For a moment her glare remained and he was sure she was going to tell him to go find out himself. But then a small seed of pride found its way onto her face and a smile blossomed. "Oh, that." She said. "Well, y'see… just apart from being the heir to the ruling clan of Wutai, the Kisaragi, I'm also the last of what we Wutaians call Leviathan-geh."

"Leviathan what?" Elena asked, cocking her head to the side in puzzlement. Yuffie noticed slight puffiness on her face underneath the makeup, and wondered just what had happened to the Turks in the reactor.

"It means 'Leviathan-kin'. See, Leviathan is our Water God, and it's the duty of the Leviathan-geh to basically make sure that Leviathan is happy. That used to mean performing the Dance of Leviathan, giving offerings and things – to call the rain, or prevent flooding, y'know?" Yuffie shook her head and spread her hands wide. "But Wutai hasn't bothered with any of that for the longest time. People have stopped believing in Leviathan because… well. The Shinra just took all of our faith away… my mama was the last true Leviathan-geh, and she was killed when I was eight years old. I was taught the Dance, but Dad thought… well, it doesn't matter." But looking at the way her face had filled with remorse and pain, it _did_ matter; very much so. Cloud sympathised.

"All right. Is there any reason that the Imbued should know that?"

Red's tail flicked back and forth when Yuffie didn't answer. "Perhaps they have researched AVALANCHE members, or know something of Wutaian history."

"More likely to be my dad making stupid threats, don't you think?" She said flatly.

No one really knew what to say to that.

Cloud let the silence linger for a while. He wasn't sure what they should do. They had gathered all the information they could from this place – and whatever else they might have found was lost to them, now. Where should they go? What could they do, go back to the complex in the middle of the ocean? Would the Imbued even have remained there after the Turks had taken out the Shiva-Imbued?

"We need to decide what to do next." He said quietly. "But I don't think we have any leads to follow just now."

Silence greeted this. It appeared that AVALANCHE agreed. "Well, I don't think we should stay here." Tifa said. "If the Imbued are going to keep attacking us…"

"We don't want to be around here." Yuffie whispered softly. "There's nothing else here for us to find – they've made sure of that. But we don't know where else we can go to find out more. We need to think on everything we found here. Right?"

Cloud looked at her, and nodded slowly. Yuffie looked bone weary, but a glimmer of strength showed in her slate grey eyes. "I want to go back to Wutai. I've left her alone, without organising retainers or anything for her defence. I need to get my act together. It might take a while to find Godo."

_And I _will_ find him_. Her unspoken words reached them all. Yuffie was stubborn at the best of times, and once she had set her mind onto something, there was no stopping her.

"I don't mind if no one else comes. Stay here, or whatever. But if the Imbued are going to pick on Wutai, then I have to make sure it's going to be well-defended."

Behind her, Vincent's eyes were fixed on the young woman. Her love for Wutai was something that could have wrapped the town protectively, shielding it from all harm had it only been tangible. And she thought that they might abandon her to be the sole guardian of her town. He opened his mouth to speak, but another voice interrupted him.

"You think we've got better things to do, Yuffie?" Reeve demanded. "The whole point of this was to help you find your father. Just because the Imbued then went and attacked Shinra doesn't mean that it's suddenly become the most important thing. The Turks and I at least will go with you to Wutai."

Cloud started to speak in agreement – of course AVALANCHE wouldn't leave her alone. They needed to consider what to do next, and why not give Yuffie time to organise her village's defence at the same time? Vincent wasn't paying attention to any of it. He had noticed the mocking gleam of Reno's mako eyes, watching him from across the room. The Turk grinned at him smugly. The green eyes reminded Vincent of poison. His own garnet orbs narrowed.

Somewhere in him, Chaos became aware, and Vincent's eyes glowed a brighter shade of crimson. The insidious influence of the demon stole over him, and his hand snaked out to rest on Yuffie's shoulder, eyes still fixed threateningly on Reno.

_Death.__ Defend._

_Yes._

A/N: I think Reno's biting off more than he can chew here, folks. He is so very, very dead if Chaos and Vincent have their way. I think we need to leash one of them, or send Reno away or something. Because an unknowingly jealous Vincent is not someone I'd want to have mad at _me_… o0; He keeps standing in the back of my head and snarling wordlessly. Stupid Reno… it's all his fault I have this damn headache. #

Anyway, please review and let me know what you think of this. bows


	16. Calm Before the Storm

Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue.

A/N: Well, what do we have in this chapter? Yuffie's trying frantically to up her town's defences, while the other AVALANCHE members are busying themselves with pondering what to do next. But lo! The black clouds have not stopped their rumbling, and rain shall finally descend upon Wutai – and the whole world! Bwa ha ha ha hah!

…yeah, anyway. Here's the chapter. Enjoy. ; sidles away

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter Sixteen: Calm before the Storm

For the second time in a relatively short time, the Highwind landed just outside Wutai. This time, however, there was no need for Cid to let off most of his passengers inside the town. His steel blue eyes were still fixed firmly on his instrument readouts, even after he had landed the craft. The promised rain seemed to be building to one hell of a crescendo – he guessed it'd been more than a month since the beginnings of the dark clouds. And yet, no rain had yet fallen. It was like some weird kind of taunt from God, Cid supposed with a snort of annoyance. The air was thick, and the scent of rain was heavy in it – but it had been that way for quite some time. And no rain fell.

He turned around to move out of the bridge, catching Cloud's eye where the man was leaning idly against the railing at the front of the bridge. "We're down. Let's go."

Yuffie looked queasy as they passed her, but she had been so amazingly stubborn about not losing her lunch – well, breakfast - all over the kimono she wore that she hadn't been sick at all on this trip. Her face was pale, but she tucked her dark hair behind her ears and gritted her teeth, surging to her feet with a rustling of pale green silk. "Follow me."

The darkness of the clouds made it seem as dark as dusk as they climbed down the ladder of the Highwind. Yuffie had little trouble with the rungs of the ladder in her wooden sandals, something that surprised even her. She had to take a few moments to steel herself before she walked into the village, determined to make sure that her people knew she was not afraid to take up the burdens of her father. AVALANCHE followed after her in something that vaguely resembled a guard of honour – Cloud and Tifa; Barret and Cid; Vincent and Reno, who were walking a little more stiffly than the rest; Lana and Rude; Aeris and Elena; Sephiroth and Reeve; Cait (who was affecting a very cheerful, bouncing march, having recognised the similarity of their formation to aforementioned guard) and Feather; Red slunk along behind the group, turning his head sharply in order to keep track of all that was happening on either side of the rather large party.

Truth to tell, there was not a lot for Red to keep track of. Wutai was quiet, only the occasional citizen venturing out into the streets. It mourned. Yuffie walked quickly through the streets, leading them across several small bridges and pausing in front of the materia shop. She turned to Cloud then, eyes and voice steady.

"Cloud, please continue to Godo's house. I will be with you shortly." She handed him a complicated-looking key, and walked into the materia shop. Barret looked at Cid, who smirked.

"Ain't that just like her?" He mouthed to the black man, putting on an innocent face when Cloud glanced back suspiciously. When Cloud had turned around again, Cid grinned, but paused when he felt another glare on the back of his neck. Vincent was giving him a dirty look. Cid felt slightly ashamed, and shrugged helplessly at the gunman.

The formation started off again, but was disrupted by both Reno and Vincent stopping. Each glanced at the other in surprise before Cloud asked, "What is it?"

Being naturally disinclined to participate in conversation, Vincent was too slow to beat Reno to the punch. "It ain't exactly safe here. We'll stay with Yuffie and make sure she gets to Godo's place. Rude – take my luggage, would ya?" He tossed the tall man his pack, choosing to ignore the dirty look that Rude sent him. Cloud looked from Reno to Vincent, and nodded. The two lines of people continued north along the river towards Godo's pagoda. Red XIII shot a glance at Vincent, pausing, and then loped off after Cloud.

Reno tossed Vincent a cocky smirk, and pushed aside the door to the materia shop. Vincent's face tightened briefly before the familiar mask of indifference was carefully replaced. He entered, following the Turk.

Yuffie was speaking to the woman at the counter. "…zicd damm res dryd ra'c du lusa du Godo'c bykuty – huf. E'ja esbundehd drehkc du teclicc."

"Oac, Myto Yuffie." The shopkeeper bowed. Yuffie pressed a finger to her temple, thinking.

"Oh, yht caht res du kad…"

Reno tuned out at the string of words that sounded like nothing more than gobbledegook, looking around lazily. Valentine appeared to be listening carefully to whatever Yuffie was saying. Reno made a small sound of annoyance. _Damn. Don't tell me he can actually understand that shit. Knew I should've taken Tseng up on those Wutaian lessons…_ He picked a piece of thread absent-mindedly from his sleeve. The woman at the counter was bowing again, and Yuffie turned around and gestured to them as though she had expected them to be there. They left the store.

"So, what were you saying?" Reno asked as Yuffie started out for Godo's house. She blinked and then smiled a little, as though she had forgotten he couldn't understand the language.

"I told her to get her son, Shuuichi – and then for Shuuichi to get a few other people I think will be helpful in this sort of situation, and won't be completely against working together." She explained. "I want to make sure that the people I put in charge while I'm away know what they're doing, as well as what's going on."

"Uh huh, gotcha." Reno affirmed with a wink. "So, this Shuuichi guy – who's he?"

Yuffie sighed slightly. "He's my cousin. He's always been a good strategist, as well as a skilled warrior. Not only that, he's one of the few people in this town that I've gotten along with for most of my life."

Reno made a low whistling sound. "Wow, what a guy." He winked at Yuffie when she turned around to glare at him, and her expression softened. "What are we supposed to do while you talk to your new panel, then?"

"Anything you like, I suppose. Wutai business is Wutai business, so I'd prefer if I didn't have people listening in." She smiled to let them both know it was nothing personal. "But you do need to think about what we're doing next, right?"

Reno shrugged. "I guess so. We've gotta come up with something to help your dad, right?" He smiled at her widely, a genuine twinkle appearing in his eye.

Vincent walked not three paces behind them, claw held carefully in the shadow of his cloak, hand resting on the gun at his belt. Ever so often, Reno would glance back at him and smile in an irritatingly smug manner. He could tell it was beginning to piss the gunman off. Even though Vincent was well-known for his cool, detached nature, he couldn't keep calm forever. Reno knew it was just a matter of time before the guy exploded.

Judging by the flames in his eyes, it would be a very _short_ matter of time.

Lana was sitting out on the narrow verandah that ran around the pagoda when Yuffie arrived. She watched their approach with narrowed eyes, though only because she was concentrating on them. It seemed to her that Reno was chatting a little _too_ intimately with 'Mee-toe Yuffie', leaning in close and favouring her with many of his most charming smiles.

This would not have bothered her, had she not caught the utter rage bubbling just below the surface in Vincent Valentine, and the apparent amusement in the Turk whenever Vincent's eyes flashed with… Lana wasn't exactly sure what to call it. It wasn't exactly anger, and it wasn't exactly jealousy – more like a response to something that threatened the people he cared for. Whatever it was, it seemed clear that Reno knew he was inciting it in Vincent, and that the Turk was merely playing some kind of game to amuse himself.

Lana did not think she would be at all amused when the victim of Vincent's not-at-all patented Death Glare, nor did she think it amusing that Reno was tempting Yuffie to get a rise out of Vincent. As they walked closer, she jerked her head at Reno to show that she wanted to speak to him.

Against her expectations, Reno actually acknowledged her. When he, Yuffie and Vincent ascended the steps, the Turk sidestepped neatly around a wind chime and over Lana's outstretched legs. "I'm gonna have a smoke."

Yuffie snorted. "I'll send out Cid and you can both suffocate together." This seemed to reassure Valentine, who merely nodded at Lana in acknowledgement of her presence before he moved inside. Lana and Reno both tilted their heads and listened until their footsteps had died away. Then Reno leaned back on the rail that ran around the pagoda, raising a flame coloured eyebrow.

"So. What's up?"

"I know what you're doing." She said flatly. "Rufus always said you were crazy, but he never mentioned that you were an idiot as well."

The other eyebrow shot up and Reno's sunglasses fell down. "Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's this about?"

Lana's lips pursed, her magenta eyes narrowing. "You've got some nerve, doing all that flirting just to make Valentine angry." Her plain words seemed to have effect, because Reno dropped down to sit next to her.

"Hey, keep it quiet, would you? If Valentine knows, you'll spoil my fun." She elbowed her jokingly. "What do you care? Jealous?"

Lana made a noise of disgust. "You're useless. Yuffie's father is missing, and you're just stringing her along. Emotions aren't just a _game_, Reno."

Reno gave her a less-than-happy look. It said: you suck. "She doesn't feel a thing for me and you know it. It's just harmless flirting. It ain't my fault that Valentine's repressed. Think of it like this: if he gets jealous enough, he'll act!"

"You misinterpret people so badly sometimes it's almost frightening." Lana muttered under her breath. "Do us all a favour and leave her alone. The last thing she needs right now is more complications."

Reno made a face and leaned back against the wall of the pagoda. _I guess it was a little thoughtless as far as Yuffie goes… damn. She's right._ "Okay, fine." He agreed reluctantly. "Just thought the guy might be fun to pester."

"Maybe, if all he does is glare at you and fume. But you're discounting the fact that he has… other natures beside his own. It's obvious he can't always control them. You've been engaged in combat with him before. You know that." Lana scolded him. "The only conclusion I'm drawing here is that you're a moron."

"Nah," Reno said, a smile decorating his face and making the twin scars along his cheekbones bend weirdly. "I'm just a little crazy, like Rufus said."

Lana snorted.

They sat in silence for a little while. Feet on the cobblestones drew their attention to a group of perhaps half a dozen young Wutaians drawing closer to the pagoda. They were followed by two or three older men, and a woman who looked like she was the grandmother of the gods themselves.

The first of the young Wutaians bowed when he reached Reno and Lana. "I am Shuuichi. We are here to speak with the Lady Yuffie." His English was virtually untainted by Wutaian accent. Shuuichi had darker hair than Yuffie, but his eyes were the same shade of grey. He was well-built, and probably no more than a hand of years older than Yuffie herself. Reno waved him on.

"Yeah, she's inside somewhere. Go on in, I'm sure she's expecting you."

Shuuichi seemed unsurprised by Reno's mannerisms, as though he had seen altogether too much of foreigners to expect them to behave properly. "Many thanks, stranger." He beckoned to the rest of the group. Though the two other youths walked past with barely a glance, both the young women nodded respectfully as they passed. The older men gave the Turk and the soldier a cursory sort of nod. The old woman gave the two a look and walked inside, head held as high as her short stature would allow.

Shuuichi shook his head slightly at the woman's antics, and closed the door behind him as he entered Godo's pagoda.

Lana looked at her hands and crooked her knees at right angles. If she listened carefully, she could hear a light buzz of conversation behind her, almost as though it was being transmitted through the wood she leaned on. Reno shifted uncomfortably beside her.

"So. You and Rufus, huh."

Lana smiled a bitter smile. "Yeah. Me and Rufus."

"You, uh… want to talk about it?" Reno asked, catching the sadness in her voice. After nearly two years, he'd have expected anyone to move on. Lana didn't seem to have done so. She frowned, and he said, "Only, I'd really like to know how I missed it."

"After our last conversation, you're wondering how you missed something like _this_?" Lana asked, slightly surprised. "It was a very well-kept secret, Turk. Not even Tseng knew."

"I doubt that." Reno said with a smirk. "Tseng knew fuckin' _everything_. Shit head." He added affectionately. "But he was always one for keeping secrets. 'S why he made a good Turk."

"I thought so, too. But Rufus didn't want anyone else to know."

"Jealous type?" Reno asked.

Lana smiled. "The Turks were still under the command of President Shinra, so if Tseng was asked any questions, he really couldn't have lied. And the Turks were, and still are, more than capable of killing someone like me. And when he came to power, there were a lot of other people vying for his attention – dangerous people. It was better that I stayed out of the limelight then, too."

"Guess so." Reno muttered in agreement, staring out at the cobblestone square. "How'd you get to be his girl, anyway?"

"Well, I was Scarlet's, originally. One of her elite little troop of SOLDIER. That's part of the reason my uniform is a different colour – it's actually scarlet, not that stupid bright maroon the captains have." Lana told him. Her voice was soft and husky, like she was narrating some sort of puppet-play for him. "I grew up in the slums, but she picked me up on the plate when a couple of wealthy, influential idiots were… picking on me."

"You don't seem like the kind of girl to be getting picked on." Reno commented, one eyebrow raised at her. Lana tried and failed to look innocent.

"I didn't say they were winning, now, did I?" She said, a faint hint of pride tickling her words. "Anyway, I was fifteen or so then, and Rufus was probably eighteen or so. I was assigned to guard him a couple of times, and eventually we got to talking…"

Reno was silent for a few minutes, fiddling with his fingers. "What was he… like? As his Turks, we were fairly close, but only on the business end of things. Tseng knew him better."

Lana considered, tilting her head slightly. A breeze captured a stray lock and tickled her neck with it. "He didn't talk much. Out in public he put on all the airs and arrogance because it was expected of him. In reality, he was much quieter. He didn't care at all when his father died. But two days before… Midgar… he had a bad feeling, he said. And he sent me away to Kalm. According to the stories, I must be the only person who's ever seen him cry." She sighed softly. Shaking her head slightly, she continued. "He had a very dark sense of humour. He liked to cook." A wicked grin curved her full lips. "And he was very good in bed."

Reno made a face. "Ugh! _Meltzer!_ Too much information!"

Hands the colour of the earth slammed down on a table and the Chocobo-Imbued drew in a quick breath. Though her eyes were directed at the floor, she knew that the man's dark brown eyes were burning with anger. She hated it when Titan was angry.

"So, they actually managed to catch you off-guard, did they?" He asked. C.I. looked at her sister shamefully, who nodded.

"It was not AVALANCHE so much as the firstborn." She said. Her hand was carefully bound in bandage and gauze, held close to her chest so that she couldn't brush it against anything as she moved about the room. "I did not expect that he would be so powerful."

"After all you've heard?" Titan sneered. He made a sound of frustration, something that cracked the deep, earthy baritone of his voice. "It doesn't matter. We will merely have to hit them hard where it hurts. Leviathan."

"Yes, my lord?" There was something resigned in the way the older man said the words, but at the same time they retained a sort of mocking tone, as though Titan wasn't really lord of anything and they both knew it.

"You will go to AVALANCHE. You will make it clear that their interference will not be tolerated."

"My lord."

Titan looked up through the straggling strands of his fringe, chocolate gaze narrowing as he looked at the older man. The streaks of grey through Leviathan's pitch black hair nearly matched his own silver. "Make it clear to them that their quest is purposeless. Make it clear," he said slowly, "That Godo is dead."

A/N: Well, there's really not a lot I can say after that, is there? Please review.


	17. The Rain Falls

Disclaimer: Don't own anyone from FFVII! Do own most of the Imbued (obviously not Leviathan) and this storyline. Art of Snake shamelessly yoinked from _Tekken III_.

A/N: Damn, I hate it when suddenly chapters become too big for their boots. At long last, here it is. Enjoy, and please let me know what you think. I've lost the link to the Al Bhed translator, but…

A Y N H

B P O U

C L P B

D T Q X

E A R N

F V S C

G K T D

H R U I

I E V J

J Z W F

K G X Z

L M Y O

M S Z Q

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter Seventeen: The Rain Falls

Aeris and Tifa sat next to the carp pond in the middle of Godo's pagoda, and two and ten o' clock respectively. Tifa had crooked her knees, bringing her sock-covered feet and calves up to touch her thighs. Her gloved hands and arms were wrapped around her legs, and she peered over her knees as though over the edge of a table.

Aeris had somewhat more decorum, her legs curled around beside her and her dress tugged downward determinedly so that it wouldn't gape. She dangled the fingers of her free hand in the water, smiling as the carp congregated around the strange fleshy dots in their ceiling.

Sephiroth stood at the other end of the small garden, at roughly five o' clock, where he could see everything. He wasn't so obvious as to draw the Masamune, but he was definitely jumpy. Well, jumpy as he got – Sephiroth seemed a perfectly rational human being without Jenova hissing through his mind. He took everything very seriously; just like Vincent, any frivolity was hidden deep beneath the surface. It was only recently that Vincent had begun to emerge from his shell. Tifa wasn't entirely sure she wanted Sephiroth to be the same way.

Not that frivolity was really the right word, she reflected with a disapproving twist of her lips. To put it another way, she hadn't seen him lose it like he had years ago – the closest he had come was during the Imbued's attack, and from what she understood his strike had been purely in defence.

But defence of whom? She shot a glance at Aeris. Sephiroth had put himself in the line of fire for her sake. Tifa frowned to herself. Was he guilty for the crimes he had committed, or was it something else?

A slight smile wormed its way across Tifa's face. In either case, it wouldn't hurt for Aeris to have a protector a little more… focused than Cloud. A twinkle appeared in her eye at the memory of some of Jenny's quips to the pair.

A darker part of her heart sullenly hoped that whatever was between the two was strong enough that Cloud would forget about the pretty Cetra.

Tifa reprimanded herself sharply. That was awful of her, even if she was jealous. Which she was. Hopelessly so. Oh, dear. She sighed before she could stop herself.

"Something wrong?"

Tifa smiled weakly at her friend. "No. I'm just being a worrywart again."

Aeris returned the smile, with more feeling. "It's okay to worry, Tifa. We haven't exactly been handled with kid gloves." She looked down the length of the fishpond to Sephiroth, a silver and black shadow in the corner of the garden. "I'm worried, too. I think I'm just being paranoid, but I feel as though the Imbued are just around the corner. The Planet…" A sigh. "Never mind."

"No, tell me." Tifa protested. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Sephiroth had glanced up. Aeris leaned forward slightly and looked at her reflection in the pond, occasionally marred by some brilliantly coloured carp.

"In Nibelheim, the Planet told me something was wrong. Every time I hear the Planet now, she's getting weaker. I'm not sure if she'll be able to warn me next time."

Tifa wrapped her arms more securely around her legs, staring at Aeris as though she had suddenly turned into the Materia Keeper. "Why is she getting weaker? We… we saved her, didn't we?" She asked, sounding a little lost. Her wine coloured eyes were confused.

"The Planet was being drained of her strength. We got rid of the reactors, but she hasn't had the time to recover yet." Aeris explained hesitantly, laying a reassuring hand on Tifa's arm.

"Think of her as a child. She is still weak from sickness. But she hasn't eaten enough, and now something else is feeding from her remaining strength." Sephiroth's tone was cool, as though the image of a sick child was not even slightly distracting for him. "Can it be the Imbued?"

"What makes you ask that?" Aeris asked in surprise. Sephiroth's lips twitched.

"A story I heard once." He said shortly.

Silence.

Tifa unwrapped her arms and glared at him. "So tell us the story already!"

Sephiroth pushed himself away from the garden wall, extricating himself effortlessly from the shadows of a leafy vine growing up the wall and across the ceiling. "Very well. In the beginning, the Planet was of three realms – the Sky, the Earth and the Sea. But the Planet grew lonely and weary of her duties to the other elements, and so she bore sons and daughters – Ifrit, demon son of the flames that burn in the Planet's core; Shiva, angelic daughter of the glaciers; Ramuh…"

He had been pacing back and forth at the other end of the pond. Now he stopped and gave the women a look.

"You get the idea."

Aeris looked at Tifa, and the two of them giggled. They certainly did. Tifa cocked her head at Sephiroth and grinned widely. "So, what's your point?"

"It seems to me that the Imbued are all Summons – the children of the Planet whom, according to that particular legend, were driven back into the Planet by the Cetra because they endangered all other life." Sephiroth waved a dismissive hand. "Of course, the Cetra harnessed the power of the gods so that their strengths were useful…" He paused in a 'fill in the blanks' kind of expectant silence. Aeris blinked and gasped.

"She called me a slave driver!" She exclaimed, rather too happily to match the words she spoke, in Tifa's opinion. The darker-haired woman raised an eyebrow. Aeris grinned sheepishly, like she understood, but maintained, "No, it makes sense. He's right."

"All right. So, the Imbued are sort of like half-gods... the Planet's children?" Tifa hazarded.

"Not quite. The Imbued are like living cages. They've taken the Summons away from the Planet, so she can't feel or control them any more. Thus, her power is less." Sephiroth explained briefly.

"Oh!" Tifa commented as everything fell into place in her mind. "_Oh._ We should go tell Cloud."

"Good idea. Let's go tell Cloud." Aeris agreed.

Both women leaped to their feet. They seemed to expect Sephiroth to follow. He trailed after them, resigned to his fate. He had the distinct impression he should say something sarcastic like 'Yippee', but as the garden was empty, decided there was no point.

"Uh. Bye, guys."

Yuffie blinked and stared after Aeris and Tifa, having been offered an excited and garbled explanation of where they were headed, and shrugged at Sephiroth, who was following with less enthusiasm.

"Have fun."

He gave her a look. Being unable to smother a giggle with her hands in order to save herself from certain death by Masamune-sticking-into-her-stomach, she turned on her heel and marched toward where she had left Cid and Shuuichi, her shoulders shaking with laughter all the way.

Cid had taken out his PHS, and was listening with an interest Yuffie didn't think the PHS merited. She set down the tray and gave her cousin a look similar to that she had received from Sephiroth minutes beforehand.

"Gee, Shuu, have you told Cid about your communications plans yet?" She asked, words slow and teasingly drawled. Shuuichi gave her a look most people reserved for people who say things like, what's so bad about genocide? Yuffie ignored it and poured the three of them tea, cupping her own bowl in her hands.

"Yes," he replied, completely unfazed. "Mr Highwind thinks we would be better off using--"

He never got to finish his sentence, and Yuffie never got to drink her tea. With a ridiculously loud BAM, a black blur punched through the far wall. Yuffie whirled and stared. It hadn't been a shoji wall. Until five seconds ago, it had been very sturdy wood pylons and panelling. Now it was splintered into a hundred million dark chestnut toothpicks across Yuffie's tatami floor.

Shuuichi was the first to move toward the black-cloaked man, settling into a defensive stance just in front of Yuffie. Cid swore loudly and badly, spinning away from the attacker to stand with his arms raised like a brawler a few feet to Yuffie's right. Yuffie came to the realisation that her tea was about to slop all over her. Years of training came to the fore, and she swooped her hand delicately to one side and avoided dropping her bowl.

Being slightly more pragmatic than her original instinct, she hurled the cup, and then the teapot, at the intruder. He raised his arms - for, tall and powerfully built as it was, the black-cloaked person certainly wasn't female - but failed to stop either item of crockery. They both shattered like grenades of hot water, and the man let out a yell of surprised pain as the scalding water coated both his arms, as well as a good portion of his upper body.

The attacker's browned hands clenched into fists, and all the hot tea that Yuffie had thrown rose into the air in a fine steam. As they watched, it condensed into a rippling globe roughly the size of a soccer ball, hovering about two feet from the black-cloaked man, between them. Black-cloak's face could not be seen, but apparently he had reached some decision, for he made a grunting sound and magically propelled the ball of boiling water directly at Cid's face. The pilot made distracting squawking sounds as the globe impacted. Yuffie's eyes slid to the side as Cid clawed at his face. It was enough.

Black-cloak moved. Shuuichi took the offensive, countering the man's attacks with some of his own. The attacker took two blows, and then dodged around the rest of them, as though they were nothing more than clumsily aimed thwacks with a pillow. Yuffie couldn't see his eyes, but she had a horrible feeling that black-cloak was focused on her. Almost as soon as she thought this, black-cloak began actually fighting back against Shuuichi, as though determined to reach his target.

Behind her on the wall was her mother's battle fan. She began to inch toward it. Shuuichi crumpled to his knees with a gasp of shocked pain, and black-cloak's dark, gaping absence of a face turned toward Yuffie. Cid growled and rushed him. Effortlessly, the black-cloaked man picked him up and flung him through a wall that was also not shoji.

Yuffie swore quietly to herself. When she kicked this guy's butt, she was going to have to order in _so_ much good-quality timber. She dodged around the first volley of punches he sent toward her, and altered that thought slightly. _If_ she kicked this guy's butt... "Wowee, you're just about as fast as our old cherry tree out there. You're going to beat _me_? I don't _think_ so." She lashed out with both fists and tongue, managing to catch her opponent a glancing blow to what she presumed was his cheek - something hard, stubbly and angular beneath the cowl, anyway. The cloth of the cowl dragged at her hand as she pulled back.

Fortunately, her opponent seemed to feel this was too close for comfort. He tugged frantically at his hood, dragging it far down over his face. Yuffie wondered how in the Planet's name he could possibly see anything. She decided that this was a good time to move towards the weapon hung on her wall.

"Ooh, are you _Imbued?_" She asked, drawing out the word as Cid and Shuuichi clambered to their feet. (Well, Cid clambered. Shuuichi somehow managed to go from horizontal to vertical without any steps in between.) "I'm _so_ not impressed. Send back C.I. - at least _she_ managed to hurt people." Only a few more feet 'til she could grab that fan.

"Hn." The man said, and his pace became faster. In a fluid series of motions, he punched Yuffie in the face, numbed her left arm to uselessness and lashed out at her legs. She barely caught herself in time to twirl around, push herself away from the wall, and deliver a spinning roundhouse to his side. He blocked it, but retreated to deal with Shuuichi and Cid, who had picked up a large pointy stick from somewhere and was attempting to impale him with it.

Yuffie spent a few seconds just breathing. She didn't like this guy. He wasn't better than her, per se, he was just very fast, and she couldn't feel her arm. On reflex, she opened her mouth.

"So, what are you anyway? Ifrit? Nah, you're wearing a _dress_, you must be the Ramuh-Imbued. Or maybe Titan - you wearing a thong under that?"

"Pah." That one disdainful sound as the Imbued snapped Cid's pointy stick and hammered Shuuichi in the neck with his elbow made it clear that Yuffie's taunts were not only merely amusing him, but were at the wrong end of the spectrum. He whipped the two halves of Cid's stick-thing and cracked the pilot solidly on the shoulders, and then on both knees. Cid went down like a smashed Behemoth King.

As he turned and assumed a position Yuffie recognised immediately as Art of Snake, her fingers fell upon the battle fan and grasped it desperately. She flipped it expertly in her hands, and found that its weight was nearly identical to that of her Conformer. She grinned. _Perfect_.

Her grin froze as another globe of water formed between the man's suddenly claw-like hands. A puddle, a small, raging, swirling puddle, grew out around his feet. A stream of water rose from the puddle like pale blue crystal, twining around the black-cloaked man and looping in and out of the puddle and between random limbs of the attacker. The watery shape solidified. Scales rippled along its length, a brilliant iridescent blue-green, darkening to a dangerous shade of purple along the delicate mane of fins that stood out around its throat. Dull red eyes fixed on Yuffie firmly, and her hands tightened on the fan.

"Leviathan." Shuuichi hissed, furious and mortified.

Yuffie was beyond furious. She could barely breath for trying to suppress a shrill shriek of outrage, could barely hear past the thundering of her heart in her ears. Faster than she could think it, her arm shot out and snapped the fan open. There was a bare _shink_ as the blades slid past one another into a delicate but deadly arc of spikes.

The Leviathan-Imbued's hands snapped back into imitations of claws, and with a sound like rushing water, the image of Leviathan slithered forth to strike at Yuffie. She was pounded with all the force of a waterfall, soaked to the bone as the great serpent rushed her. She darted out of the stream of water to face the whirlwind of blows the Leviathan-Imbued had aimed at her around the coils of his snake companion.

Yuffie blocked automatically, whirling the fan into a deadly shield. Her grey eyes practically crackled with lightning. How dare this bastard use her own Leviathan against her? Her eyes narrowed.

"Oui tea huf." She whispered.

One swipe, two swipe, three and _slash _right where he least expected it, right where he thought he'd be safe, falling backwards as she sliced because he was too close for her blow to connect, and because they all expected to simply stop the blow of an elbow with their forearm. They were always wrong. She barely felt the _snick_ of the fan passing through the bones of the Leviathan-Imbued's forearm, felt a shuddering jolt as she kept the fan moving, and got the weapon free just in time to curl back further than seemed humanly possible and handspring to her feet again.

For a moment, the Leviathan-Imbued stood as though frozen. Leviathan's smoky form condensed into something a lot more solid, something that made the tatami-covered wood beneath him groan in complaint. The black-cloaked man crumpled slowly to his knees and slumped forward onto the tatami, and as his upper body hit the floor, the head disconnected completely from the neck and shoulders and rolled across the floor, losing its black cloth cowling and coming to rest against Leviathan's thick, heavy coils.

The face of Godo Kisaragi stared in slight shock at the ceiling, apparently not having been expecting decapitation.

Yuffie felt the adrenaline drain from her system in a matter of milliseconds, her face freezing over as her eyes widened automatically with shock. Her body dropped its arms to its sides, listened to the astonished and frightened gasp of her cousin, the silence of one of her closest friends who by all rights should have been swearing, and paid heed to the enormous and dangerous looking serpent before her eyes. She could feel her mind racing, but somehow no thoughts were coming through; it was as though her mind was moving too fast for her to latch onto, and she couldn't get a coherent thought from it if she tried.

In the whirlwind of the back of her mind, she thought she could hear screaming.

Blood was flooding out over the floor, spurting over the scales of Leviathan. The serpent appeared not to like the sensation, as it shifted almost uncomfortably. It seemed to put aside such petty feelings after a few moments, though, as it shook out its mane of fins and let out a rumbling hiss that sounded like the pounding of a waterfall. Some small part of Yuffie noted that its eyes glowed a bright shade of crimson that rivalled even Vincent's, and his demonic alter egos'.

Leviathan levelled an extremely understanding glare at them, for a snake, and dissolved through the floor with a sound like rushing water. In a matter of seconds there was a thundering sound on the roof as the clouds suddenly lost control of the rain that had been imprisoned within them for weeks on end.

Yuffie reflected with surprising calm that no amount of water would ever get the blood out of the tatami on her floor.

"Y-Y-Yuffie? Y-Yna oui ugyo? D-Dryd-" Shuuichi attempted to speak, and failed, eyes locked on the head of his late lord. Cid wheezed quietly, too surprised to even swear.

Yuffie's mouth moved without her. "Shuuichi, ku du dra day ruica yht veht Cloud yht dra udranc. Cid, ku - _go_ to the Turtle's Paradise and get the Turks. Try to keep this under wraps for now."

Her mother's fan dropped from suddenly limp fingers, and she brought trembling hands up to rest just beneath her chin. She walked to the hole in the wall and stared wide-eyed at the rain for a few moments. Then, "I'm going for a walk," she said in a small voice, and she vanished into the darkness.

Vincent was a quarter of the way down Da Chao when the rain began. His eyes narrowed in confusion as he stared at the clouds, blinking occasionally when a droplet hit too close to his eyes. The rain had been building forever, it seemed... what had made it start now? The strange presence he had sensed not ten minutes ago, the burst of Chaos' sentience from the back of his mind... was it connected? He continued his sliding, leaping progress down the mountainside, moving slightly slower because of the rain and a vague, nondescript fear of falling off the mountainside and meeting the same fate as Don Corneo several years prior.

His boots were gathering rings of mud on the dulled bronze, on the dark leather, and so were the digits of his claw – every time he missed a step, they would hit stone or mud with a dull clang and a raw scraping sound that set his teeth on edge. Chaos still hummed alertly in the back of his mind, seemingly as distrustful as Vincent was of the sudden rain. Else, the demon sensed something that Vincent couldn't, and wasn't making it known to him.

He gave the mental equivalent of a shrug. The demon had no purpose in disguising danger to him – if Vincent was harmed, so was Chaos. A frown tugged at his mouth. He should not feel such… trust? Was it trust? No, it couldn't be. Trust was something shared between friends. It had more the flavour of a business deal, and there was certainly more hostility than trust in every business Vincent had ever been in.

He was halfway down the mountain when, out of the shadows before him – and he should have seen, he should have been able to see, he should have been concentrating harder – a ragged figure ran, head down to follow the blur of watery earth beneath its feet. Vincent made a startled sound and tried to stop, but the other barrelled directly into him. If he hadn't slipped suddenly to the side, he could have caused some serious harm to the figure. As they fell, he grabbed the person with his hand and slammed his claw into the cliff face with a sharp clang, holding tightly to the girl so that she wouldn't plummet to her doom.

She let out a moan that could have been an attempt at a scream, and Vincent's crimson eyes widened, glowing darkly in the night. "Yuffie?"

She was clad in a saturated yukata, her dark hair plastered to her face. Her eyes were red with tears, but in the rain he couldn't have marked their passage down her face. The stormy eyes were filled with pain. "V-Vincent?" She said, and her voice was choked. Vincent felt his stomach drop away.

"What happened?"

"I… I… !" She whirled away, and with a sound that made even Vincent feel ill, she threw up. His pupils contracted to tiny, fearful black dots on a red plane.

"Yuffie, fryd rybbahat!" He grabbed her arm too hard, turned her towards him too fast, and she fell against him, face pressed into his chest. In the tiny alcove, sheltered by one of Da Chao's many gargantuan hands, Yuffie sank to the ground with Vincent and began to sob. The man held her as soothingly as he could, panic slowly rising through the layers of his control to choke him. She was so strong, always so strong. What had happened to her? What was wrong? He stared blindly into the darkness, mind racing.

At last, Yuffie began to speak, but it was in a flood of barely coherent Wutaian, punctuated by sobs and gasps for breath. Vincent had to concentrate hard to discern any meaning at all from the words, and even when he finally did understand, he couldn't believe it. His arms tightened about the seemingly fragile form of the ninja, pressing her close to him – for surely, in the icy rain and in the thin yukata, she must be freezing. Even Chaos shifted within him, discomforted.

"Yuffie..." He bent his head over hers in the darkness, drew her close. Yuffie's crumpled, tear-stained face pressed against his neck as she murmured incoherently in her native tongue. He searched for something to say. To say that it was all right would be a lie – he wasn't sure she would ever be 'all right' again. But she would heal in time.

"E's cunno oui ryt du ku drnuikr drec."

He had interrupted the flow of her mutters, and now she stood silent in the circle of his arms. She rested her forehead on his shoulder, grasped after his human hand in the night. She squeezed it tightly, and he squeezed back. A reassurance. A human touch.

Very good, Valentine, you can do this still.

They stood there for a while, Vincent still holding her hand lightly, and feeling a bit superfluous. He began to feel uncomfortable.

"Yuffie, would you like to go back now?"

She shook her head furiously, face returning to bury itself in the sopping fabric at his neck. "No. Not yet. I can't, just yet." She muttered, apparently regaining her tongue for Midgarian. "You can go down, if you want."

Vincent thought to himself that Cloud would be worried about her, and that he should go, or at least call to inform him that the girl was safe, if not entirely sound just now. He didn't make any move to leave, or to call, but his hand squeezed hers, and the tips of his claw-digits continued their automatic tracery across her shoulders, down her back. "Don't be foolish." He chided her automatically. Some more morbid part of his mind noted that it would be incredibly stupid to leave her on such a high place in her grief. So he stood, and he waited. And after a while, though the tears occasionally resurfaced, she appeared to be calm again.

"All right. I'm ready."

Vincent released her almost reluctantly, and took a step out into the pouring rain. He made a single gesture that she should walk before him, and she stood, shivering for a moment. Then she closed her eyes, donned a mask, and squared her shoulders, striding off down Da Chao. Vincent suddenly realised that she had no shoes on, that the mud was squishing through her toes even as the drenching rain washed her feet clean before her next step. A different man might have started to laugh, or at least smile at the mundane things occurring to his beleaguered mind.

Vincent merely followed, and a very small part of him - he hoped, a part that was yet human – wept.

They entered through the front door, and Yuffie waited numbly for Vincent to remove his sopping cloak, his muddied boots. The whirlwind in her mind had stilled at last, and now there was nothing but silence and an eerie calm that chilled her to the bone. Or maybe that was the rain and the wind, the squalling fury of Leviathan from the skies. She didn't like to think that the god was so furious with Wutai.

Vincent halted her with a touch on her arm as she made to go inside. He looked down at her silently, red eyes glittering blackly in the shadows. His eyes asked the question he was not willing to voice. Was she truly ready to face this? Once she walked into this house, there could be no more running away. Yuffie's reserve wavered for a moment, and she longed to step back into his embrace, to cry onto his wet shoulder that still held the scent of dried jasmine and to make the world outside _them_ go away. But she knew she couldn't do that. Beneath the hurt and the loneliness was a cold, seething fury – the Imbued would pay for this. It didn't make sense in her mind, but to her heart it was as clear as crystal.

She looked back up at Vincent, eyes shimmering with tears of fury, of sadness, of appreciation for his concern. She stepped inside the pagoda with her head held as high as any queen's.

When they emerged into the main chamber, Sephiroth was the first to notice their presence, but Tifa was the first to move toward her. But she stopped, appearing to notice the strength running through the young ninja, realising that to allow that strength the opportunity to fade might let it drain away forever. She kept her distance, but her eyes were filled with sympathy and remembered pain of her own.

_She shouldn't have gone out on her own like that. Thank the Planet, Vincent found her. What if the Imbued had been here in force? Thank the Planet._

Cloud, Reno and Rude were crouched on the floor around Godo's body. Shuuichi stood vigil by Godo's severed head, his forearms tight across his chest, grasping the cloth at either of his elbows so that deep creases formed. Cid and Red XIII stood near him, the pilot looking as though he'd really rather be somewhere else. Red looked concerned, but interested. He sauntered over to rub himself against Yuffie's legs, and she stroked his nose because somewhere she knew it would make him feel better that she could still be annoying.

She let her eyes flick around the room naturally, and noted that Reeve, Feather and Elena weren't present. Aeris stood to the side of the room, as though she wasn't quite sure whether she wanted to prove she was gutsy or run screaming in the opposite direction. Sephiroth merely stood with his arms crossed casually, barely uncomfortable, with one silver eyebrow raised in either puzzlement or curiosity, or perhaps simply disdain.

Barret stood beside the gaping hole in the wall, peering out into the darkness one moment, staring at Godo's body the next, as though he couldn't decide on what he thought to be a threat. Lana stood thoughtfully on the opposite side of the door, her eyes fixed firmly on the sprawled body of Wutai's ex-leader. _But he's dead,_ Yuffie thought, _He's no danger to anyone._

Grief tugged savagely at her heart, and Yuffie felt the moisture vanish from her mouth with the rise of an aching pain in her throat. She closed her eyes for a moment, thought vicious things at her gods, and opened them again. She walked across the room to stand behind Cloud, and looked down at him, trying to focus on the startlingly blond hair rather than the blood-stained robes behind it.

Cloud turned around, and stood wearily. "Hey, Yuffs. How are you feeling?" Eyes the colour of a Fatal Error screen stared sympathetically into her own. Yuffie didn't blink.

"That isn't important right now." She said crisply. "I want to know where he came from. I want to hunt the Imbued down. But he must be... burned, tomorrow."

Cloud was surprised at the strength in her voice, and then realised that he really shouldn't be. He kept thinking of Yuffie as a child, though she was less than a hand of years younger than he was. She had always been tough – had to be, to survive adventuring alone in an effort to boost Wutai's economy, to survive the battle with Sephiroth. Yuffie was very strong, and she believed in her own strength, but only so long as others believed in it, too. Cloud's brow quirked slightly. Of course, she was more than willing to prove a person wrong if they doubted her abilities... She was a strange young woman with an ambivalent personality, and yet Cloud still kept trying to figure her out as though she made rational, one-sided judgements. _You should've given up by now, don't you think, Strife?_

"We'll do what we can, but there's not much we can determine from a body."

Yuffie nodded once. "I know."

She moved to Shuuichi, and stood in front of him, waiting for him to gather himself enough to listen to her calmly. He looked down at his cousin with sorrow, fear and sympathy. Yuffie heard what he was about to say before he opened his mouth, and beat him to it. "I don't want to hear it." She snapped. "Listen to me. The elders must be informed of this, immediately. I can't go myself, or they'll assume I have no authority. AVALANCHE can't be my only source of power here. If you can't do this, then go and get Katsura."

Shuuichi visibly steeled himself. "I'll do as you bid, Lady." He muttered, respectfully lowering his eyes. Yuffie nodded.

"Good. Tell them that I'll receive any queries via notes, or that they may visit me in four hours." She frowned slightly. "Don't tell them about Leviathan, Shuuichi."

"Yes, Lady." Shuuichi murmured, eyes still on the floor. His lips quirked and he stepped forward to embrace the girl briefly. "Muhk meva. Kuut milg." He whispered, and strode from the room, opting to leave via the front entrance rather than through the hole in the wall. Lana shifted slightly, as though she were about to ask a question.

Yuffie turned to face the room. "Reno, Rude, find out what you can from the body. The rest of us probably can't help much, unless you can smell something, Red?"

The great cat blinked his golden eye and made a doubtful sound. "All the scent on him is drowned by water and snake flesh." He grumbled. "But, I can smell oil and machinery... and ice, I think."

The only thing Vincent seemed to smell was warm flesh and blood. He crossed the room quickly and silently, eyes fixed desperately on the rain sluicing down outside. The scent of blood nagged at something inside him, worried at the walls that kept the demon dormant. He breathed deeply and tried to smell the freshness of the rain.

Chaos opened its wings and closed them again in a dangerous, predatory motion that chilled his blood. It focused its red witchlight eyes on him, and stared apathetically. Slowly, as it caught wind of the world outside, it crooked its jaw and offered a toothy, cruelly amused smile.

Vincent shuddered within his cloak and clenched his fist in the red material convulsively. His eyes were far away, but from where she was standing Lana could see that the iris had bled slowly into the pupil, the entire eye beginning to flood with red. Vincent hunched his shoulders and closed his eyes, and Lana's fingertips traced the butt of her rifle, eyes flicking from Vincent to the rest of the room and back again.

Yuffie nodded. "Okay, then." She fixed Cloud with a piercing look. "We'll have to stay here for a few days. But after that, I want to get out of here and hunt these people down."

"Huh? How come?" Barret demanded.

"_Think_ about it. If Godo was alive, then Staniv might be, too! Listen - when I fought him, he wasn't trying." She pointed an accusing finger at Godo's head.

Reno cocked an eyebrow at her, and Cloud shifted uneasily.

"There'd be no point in sending someone weaker than CI and her sister after us – we've more or less proven that we can deal with them already. But Godo was much stronger than they were, even when he wasn't Leviathan-Imbued. He and I spar all the time, and today he was just going through the motions. He was distracted, or he just didn't care." Her voice was growing higher as she grew more and more impassioned. "I don't know why he was working with the Imbued, but I don't think he was doing it willingly. Not after fighting him today. You probably think I'm just refusing to see the truth. But I'm not. And if Dad was fighting them, then Staniv would have fought them, too."

She finished quietly, her hands clenched into fists in front of her. From where he stood by the hole in the wall, Vincent could hear the quaver in her voice. An urge to hunt and make bleed rose, but stronger than that was the urge to protect. He squashed Chaos and straightened fully, turning to face the room again. He could smell the rain.

Lana's hand eased away from her gun and back to her hip.

"I'll go get Elena. Yuffie, hon', why don't you go have a bath or something? You look freezing."

From across the room, Aeris suddenly looked as though she had found her calling. "That's a good idea. Come on, we'll run you a bath and make something hot for you to drink. You'll have to keep your strength up if you're going to deal with Roko, after all..."

Yuffie let herself be led away by the worried Cetra. She couldn't think hard enough just now to protest. She'd done all her thinking for the day. Right now she wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and stay there forever.

But Yuffies don't do that. Yuffies are bouncy and cheerful at all times, unless they're threatening to kill somebody for something that was no more than mildly annoying.

Yuffie thought that for all she cared, someone else could be a Yuffie for a while. She was going to go be a Vincent and mope in a corner.

A/N: Does this mean that Vincent has to be a Yuffie? Of course not – that would be scary. Next chapter, Wutaian politics ensue, but only if I can be bothered writing about them. (Ever read _Shogun_? Yeah, well.)

**Demeter** – thankyou once again for your feedback! I agree, Lana is turning out to be a little Mary Sue-ish... it's not something I've aimed for, believe me. She's supposed to be capable, though, and good at getting along with people, and that's what I'm trying to get across. She's ruthless, and a good soldier, which I suppose comes back to the getting along with people schtick – ya gotta know whose butt to kiss, after all. But she doesn't exactly have any major flaws, which frustrates me somewhat... I mean, they're definitely there, I just haven't gotten to them yet.

**Andariel666** – Thankyou very much for the offer, but I usually draw my own characters. I have a whole plethora of images just waiting around to be scanned and uploaded to my website at some stage. However, if you do want to do some images, please feel free! You can e-mail me on LRFCBB at yahoo dot come dot au if you want a more detailed description of their outfits, appearances or whatever. :)

Please review and give me constructive criticism! I'm looking to improve my writing, not just praise. (Not that I'm complaining! This'll be the first fic that hits the 100 review mark, guys:D)

Next chapter should be out soon. Until then, ja, ne?


	18. Flesh and Steel

Disclaimer: I own the Imbued, Lana, Shuuichi and the rest of the Wutaians, Feather and Yuffie's cats. The whole _Fruits Basket_ crew. Because there were twelve and I wanted them to be named for the zodiac, and it was just too much effort to come up with new names.

A/N: I decided to give people a break and just write the conversation between Yuffie and her advisors in English. Because it's quite long, and I'm sure no one wants to flick between a translator and the story for that long. It's only all right if you're fluent in Al Bhed.

**Faith and Feather Chapter 18: Flesh and Steel**

_These are the eyes that can't see me_

_These are the hands that drop your trust_

_These are the boots that kick you around_

_This is the tongue that speaks on the inside_

_These are the ears that ring with hate_

_This is the face that'll never change_

_This is the fist that grinds you down_

_This is the voice of silence no more_

-- "Some Kind of Monster", Metallica

Feather sat with her arms wrapped around her stockinged legs, her chin tucked neatly into the crevice between her knees. Her pale eyes were blank and faraway, her thoughts focused elsewhere. One pale hand clutched loosely at the Shiva materia; the other held the white feather delicately between two fingers. Cait Sith and Reeve watched her silently and meditatively, neither with any idea of what she might be thinking.

Cait was pleasantly idle, running over his system innards and making absolutely certain that there was no damage: no fraying, no bugs, no pieces missing or attachments shaken loose. His eyes, too, were dull and glassy, but they were usually that way, and Reeve knew exactly what was running through the cat's head – a long, simple series of zeros and ones. It was nothing deep or emotionally complex. Reeve was relieved that Cait at least seemed unscathed by the day's events. Even AI had its limits.

His amber eyes narrowed slightly in thought as he watched the girl's head tilt slowly to one side, as though she was trying to make sense of a puzzle in the distance. What could she be thinking about? He decided to ask her.

"Feather-" He grimaced as a loud crack of thunder interrupted him. Feather jumped, but peered at him attentively. "What are you thinking about?"

She stared at him pensively for a while, blinking slowly. "I was trying to listen to Leviathan." She said gravely at last. "He's outside, and he's very loud and angry. But I don't understand him."

Reeve blinked. "You're... listening to Leviathan? How? I mean... could I hear him?"

"Maybe." Feather shrugged. "I don't think so." She smiled forgivingly. "Laurent couldn't hear Shiva, or understand her. I could hear the Phoenix, but I couldn't understand it. I think they're all so different, it takes different people to understand what they're saying."

She seemed more animated now that she spoke of something she understood intimately, but Reeve didn't understand at all. "You mean the Summons have different personalities, something like that?"

"Not only personalities. Shiva speaks in ice. Phoenix speaks in radiance. Leviathan speaks in water. But I only understand the ice." Feather said. Reeve frowned and wondered how in the name of the Planet this girl came to understand anything so confusing. He grinned sheepishly at his own thoughts – he'd bet anything that lots of people thought the exact same thing about him, designing Midgar.

"All right. You can't understand or speak to Leviathan. Does that mean you can't put it back into the materia like you did with Shiva?" He asked carefully. To his surprise, Feather gave him a cheerful nod.

"You've got it." She said, in a strangely bubbly voice. Could this be a hint of her personality showing through from before she had lost her memory? Reeve smiled. If so, it was a good sign.

"So, do you have any ideas on how we could put Leviathan back into the cracked materia?" He asked, eager to keep this line of conversation going in the interests of both helping Feather and stopping the sudden monsoon. She had been quite upset originally, but now she seemed to have gotten over her fear of the tempest raging outside. Reeve was glad for more than one reason – she'd clung to him like a limpet through the first hours of the storm, but she seemed a great deal calmer now, as though realising that the storm's rage wasn't directed at her. He pursed his lips. Perhaps she had felt Leviathan's rage and been afraid of that, rather than the storm itself. That seemed more than likely.

To his disappointment, Feather shook her head. "No. I can't do it. Someone must speak with Leviathan."

_Oh, good,_ thought Reeve. _I know lots of people who can do that._ He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "All right. Tell us if you think of something, won't you?" Feather smiled and rocked herself onto her hands and knees. She crawled over to him and attached herself briefly to his right arm.

"We need people who can speak with the Summons." She said, eyes clear. But after that the fog seemed to find its way back into her head, and she rested against his shoulder forlornly. She cringed at the thunder and glanced worriedly at the ceiling. Reeve sighed and patted her hand reassuringly. He'd go tell Cloud about it and see if the swordsman had any better ideas.

---

Yuffie stood by herself in her room and stared at the heavy, ornate kimono lying carefully spread out on her bed. It was rose pink with lighter pink sakura blossoms shimmering across its surface. She had already donned the many lighter silk under-kimonos, but now that it came to the final one she had a strong desire to simply wear her old khaki shorts and her forest green knit top. She looked ridiculous in these, like a little kid playing dress-ups. She scowled. But her normal gear was _too_ casual. She rolled her eyes a little at herself. Why was she such an extremist?

Still, she preferred to be casual and battle-savvy than over-adorned and only able to trip on her own skirts. She untied her waist sash and tugged the undergarments savagely away from her body. She had always hated trying to fight in a kimono, and pink didn't exactly convey a warrior image. She tugged on her green tank top and balanced with ease while she pulled on her shorts. She took extra care to button the shorts – didn't want Grandmother Roko to have any real complaints to make. The clothes fit her like a second skin, and she felt immediately at home in them. A slight measure of anxiety filtered away as she strapped on her headband and armour.

She examined herself in the oval mirror above the dresser. Yep, she was dressed to kill all right. She grinned at her own bad pun. If only Godo were here, it would have _killed_ him.

Yuffie stared at herself in the mirror and burst out laughing. In the stillness, the sound echoed through the house like an explosion. She sank to the floor, howling with laughter, and pounded the floor in an attempt to regain some control. Eventually she ended up flat on her back, staring at the ceiling and trying to muffle her giggles with both hands.

She heard the door slide open. She rolled her head to the side, still smirking a little, and saw Aeris, Reno and Sephiroth staring at her like she'd gone crazy. She bounded to her feet, gave them a cheerful little wave.

"Hiya!"

Over Aeris' head, Reno tried to trade a dubious look with Sephiroth. Unfortunately, the silver-haired man just raised one eyebrow, and swept off again. Reno transferred his gaze to Aeris, who shrugged flippantly.

"You want to share the joke?" Reno asked as Yuffie made a beeline out of the room. She shook her head.

"You'd think I was weird." She said, tone matter-of-fact. _And it's entirely possible that I am. But that's OK. Dad understands my sense of humour. And even though he's dead, it obviously hasn't affected me that much. Because I'm still thinking at the same level of babble as I did before, even though it hurts that he's gone and everything, it's not really affecting me._ Yuffie stopped listening to her brain, because it was moving fast and hyper again like it usually did. Did that mean she was over it? She didn't think so. But having had her mother die... well, she knew it didn't change very much in the great scheme of things. As far as she was concerned, it meant that her father had nothing better to do than watch over her for the rest of his life. Yuffie bit back another fit of giggles.

Reno stared at the back of Yuffie's head with a raised eyebrow. "'Cus, y'know, we don't think she's weird _now_." He muttered to Aeris. The Cetra merely offered him an enigmatic smile, her eyes also fixed on Yuffie. It seemed to her that Yuffie was feeling a great deal better. She could still sense the sadness that the girl felt, but it wasn't as pronounced. Yuffie had never been one to dwell on things, and it seemed that had carried over to grief. She looked up at Reno and let Yuffie pull ahead a bit.

"She was heartbroken when I died." She said conversationally. "She cried her eyes out all over Cloud. But then she was okay again. Yuffie's very in tune with her feelings. She sorts them out in no time, and then she's fine again."

"Mmm." Reno said thoughtfully. "I wonder..." He was cut off by a loud gurgling sound from up ahead. Yuffie stopped in mid-stride and stared down at her stomach in surprise.

"Oh. I'm really hungry." She said, as though it had only just occurred to her. Aeris stifled a laugh.

"Well, when was the last time you ate?" She asked tactfully. Yuffie considered this.

"Um. Ummmm. This morning?" She made an almost comical moaning sound. "Okay, definitely need some food." She walked even faster, making a beeline for the kitchen and muttering under her breath.

Reno grinned and turned off for the room he, Rude and Elena were sharing. "Yeah, whatever. I'm gonna see what Elena's doing." _Good luck with that, Valentine, it's crazy._

---

Cloud was sitting out the front of the pagoda when the advisors came, dangling his booted feet from the edge of the veranda. He was getting wet, but he didn't really care that much until he saw people. Then he moved back and leaned against the wall of the pagoda. Shuuichi ghosted out of the pagoda to stand at the foot of the stairs, bowing deeply as they approached through the rain. Cloud recognised the old woman who walked first. She was tiny, but rather than frail the word that came to mind was spry. Cloud assumed that this was the woman known as Grandmother Roko. He nodded to her respectfully as she ascended the stairs in her pale kimono, a large parasol held pragmatically above her head. She watched him out of the corner of her black eyes, and entered the pagoda without another word.

Next came a much younger woman with elaborately styled hair, also carrying a parasol. She smiled weakly at Shuuichi as she passed. This, then, must be Katsura, the woman who would have taken Shuuichi's place. She too passed Cloud by without saying a word, but she nodded to him in acknowledgement before she entered the pagoda.

A tall, powerfully built man ascended the steps just ahead of two stout youths, obviously twins. By their identical stoic expressions and their rather damp outfits, they would brave the rain no matter the circumstances. They had very solid, dark features, and Cloud assumed that they were part of another powerful clan in the village. They certainly had an air of importance about them. A daughter of the same line followed behind, choosing to walk with a hawk-like man of about Shuuichi's age. Cloud found it disconcerting to note that he classified these people as children still, even though most were older than he was. He resisted the impulse to roll his eyes at himself, and watched as a shrivelled old man moved slowly up the steps, accompanied by a patient man with amber eyes that reminded Cloud vividly of Nanaki.

As the last of the advisors stepped inside, Shuuichi wearily followed, sliding the door closed behind him. Cloud thought over the faces he had seen tonight and marvelled over Yuffie's diplomatic choices. Most of the elders had appeared calm and rational in the face of such grief, even by Wutaian standards, and no doubt they carried with them great experience. Katsura and Shuuichi, along with the daughter of the other clan and her beau apparent, all appeared to be intelligent, level-headed and courageous – exactly the sort of youths that would not clash violently with the elders, but would patiently explain new trains of thought in ways that would appeal to the older and more stubborn generations. The men of the other clan looked to be experienced warriors, and probably tacticians as well. All in all, Cloud was impressed, and sorry to say he had never seen it coming from Yuffie Kisaragi.

The thoughts were chased from his mind when the door slid open again and Reeve peered out. Seeing Cloud, he hastily stepped out and closed the door again. "They've all gone into the study, like last time." He muttered nervously. He stood facing the stormy square, hands in his jacket pockets, for a few moments. "Feather mentioned something earlier. I don't think it's much use yet, but I thought you might like to know." He said quickly.

Cloud looked up in interest. Reeve's tawny eyes were focussed out on the squalling rain as he spoke. "She said that she can speak with and understand Shiva, and that she can hear Leviathan. Unfortunately, she can't understand it… er, him," he added with a nervous look at the skies, "She said that we'd need to find someone who can speak with Leviathan in order to calm him down enough to return him to the materia."

Cloud stared hard at the falling rain and hissed out a breath through his teeth. "Shit." He muttered pointedly. "Guess Wutai's in for a lot of bad weather."

Reeve sighed. "I checked a little while ago… it isn't only Wutai. Seems like a storm just sprung up worldwide. The tides have changed at the wrong time, and… from the looks of the satellite photos, it's filling up the Junon catchment at a phenomenal rate. And Lucrecia's lake is filling up from the sump and the waterfall. That's a relatively small area, and it'll flood over in… well, I give it a week, two at best. It might take a good month or two of solid rain for the Junon catchment to get to overflow, but when it does, it's not going to be pretty."

Cloud was silent for a few moments, panicking very quietly in a secluded corner of his head. "Reeve, do me a favour and check out what happened to the weather for the period that Shiva was out. If the ice caps suddenly expanded or something like that."

Reeve nodded, and glanced from the flooding square to Cloud. "I wouldn't be surprised, actually. I'll get Elena to hook Cait up with her hard drive so she doesn't have to look over it herself."

Cloud raised an eyebrow. "What is Elena doing, anyway? She's been in her room all day."

Reeve smiled slightly. "She's running through the entire Neo-Shinra database. Manually. She doesn't want to rely on any search engine built into the database, and she doesn't want to try hacking just yet."

Cloud chuckled. "It'd be really sad if you had to get her to hack into your own company's system, Reeve."

"Tell me about it." The president of Neo-Shinra muttered. "Reno won't ever let me live it down. Or Lana." He groaned. "Oh, I'll need to send one of them to Mideel or something when this is over, or they'll gang up on my like you wouldn't believe. Those two should never have been introduced…"

"Like Yuffie with matches?" Cloud asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

"More like Cid and I with a battery, some paperclips and a broken light bulb." Reeve muttered. Cloud gave an involuntary shudder, and Reeve laughed. "My point exactly."

---

Tifa was having a hard time adjusting to Wutaian cooking implements, in particular the old, beaten implements that had been Godo's. The man had apparently favoured the timeworn traditional Wutaian crockery, but it seemed to Tifa that her own pots and pans were far more efficient. She pouted at the cooking pot resentfully, stirred it a few times just to be sure nothing would stick, and moved back to slicing the rest of the vegetables she would need.

Aeris and Lana circled the table, arranging placemats, cutlery, bowls and glasses. Reno, having mastered the centrepiece – a very well balanced tower of seasonings that would have to be disassembled before any one of them could actually be used – had moved on to mixing drinks. Tifa couldn't help but notice that there was one too many heavily alcoholic drinks for the Turks. She tapped his shoulder and pointed at the one that had the most alcoholic content.

"Mine," He said calmly. She pointed to the next one on her toxic waste-o-meter. "Lana's." The next one. "Yuffie's."

"Reno. For one thing, Yuffie doesn't drink. For another, if she did, she'd need to stay sober. Thirdly, she'll be in that meeting for hours." Tifa pointed out sternly. Reno blinked and then looked as though none of that had actually occurred to him. She softened slightly, looked about conspiratorially, and leaned in close to him. "Slip it to Sephiroth." She murmured, and moved on.

Reno hunched forward to hide his laughter. Across the room, Sephiroth fixed the kitchen with a glare. "I do not drink, either." He said with finality. Tifa looked shocked and a little embarrassed at having been caught out. Reno just pissed himself laughing quietly in a corner.

"Ah, give it t' me." Barret muttered, covering the mouthpiece of the PHS. He was talking to Marlene and Elmyra in Midgar. Reno collected himself enough to shrug, and switched Yuffie's glass with what had previously been Barret's. Then, seeing no need to let good alcohol go to waste, he picked up the now spare glass and tossed it back with relish. He didn't so much as cough.

Cid nursed a cup of Yuffie's tea in a corner. In his opinion, it didn't deserve to be called tea – weak shit, like dishwater. Still, it smelled a whole lot nicer than the tea he was used to. He understood why Yuffie would like it. Girl always had weird taste. His lips twisted into an odd shape as he thought. "Wonder how that meeting's going, anyway." He muttered into the quiet room.

"I wish we could help Yuffie with this," Aeris agreed, "but I don't think it's our place. I would like to know what's being said... but I'm sure she'll let us know, afterwards."

Sephiroth made a slight sound in his throat as Reno carried all the drinks to the table, marching in a line across his forearm like so many headstones. "In Wutai… afterwards is never quite the same as during. It would be better that Cloud were allowed to sit in." He said decisively. The room shot him brief startled looks, and he shrugged. "But it cannot be helped." He conceded.

Tifa couldn't help wishing that something else would pop up to occupy her. She hated sitting around and waiting for a committee to decide their course of action. Viciously, she stirred the pot, and stubbornly ignored the pouring rain outside.

---

Yuffie herself was frustrated with the process. But, as was usual with such meetings, her face was blank and emotionless. She sat at the head of the long table, Roko on her right, Katsura on her left. Roko was waiting patiently for Yuffie to begin, leaning heavily on the table. Katsura sat up straight opposite her, eyes flicking from the tabletop to Yuffie's face, worriedly. Shuuichi stood at the other end of the table, guarding the door. He had little input to make to this conversation, and so he had not been afforded a seat at the table.

Beside Roko was Gen, the old, withered man that Cloud had seen earlier. He had bright, sharp yellow-green eyes and a wispy white beard and moustache. His bony hands were clasped before him on the table, white with the pressure he was exerting. His kimono was still damp, but he was wrapped in a think blanket that had been offered by Shuuichi at the door. He had been Shake's grandfather.

Beside Gen sat the young man with hawk-like features and dark, intense eyes – Tori – and his girlfriend, Haru of the Shirakawa Clan. They were both wrapped in the same cloak, which Yuffie found at the same time to be absolutely adorable and completely sickening. Haru's family sat on the opposite side of the table, the sons staring stonily past the lovesick scene and the father glaring viciously at Tori. They had refused the blankets.

Yuffie steeled herself in the customary silence. "I bid you all welcome to the house of the Kisaragi Clan. I trust that Shuuichi has made clear the day's occurrences."

Roko nodded once. "I extend my sympathies to you, Lady Kisaragi." She murmured respectfully. The slightest change from her usual tone let Yuffie know that it was not only a customary extension of sympathy. Roko was unhappy with Godo's death. Yuffie smiled, not too warmly, and tilted her head slightly at Roko.

"I thank you for your support."

Gen made a similar statement, his reedy voice slightly less controlled than Roko's smooth, professional tone. Calfak Shirakawa made a formal half-speech about honour in death on behalf of his family. Tori made a softly murmured apology in his low, musical voice. Katsura turned her elaborately dressed head towards Yuffie, and though lukewarm formal words passed her lips, she took Yuffie's hand under the corner of the table and squeezed it. Yuffie appreciated the gesture, but was not in the mood to be coddled.

"I am certain you are all concerned about the future of Wutai and what brought about the death of the late Lord Godo Kisaragi." She said dispassionately, biting back words of her own that were struggling to emerge instead. Calfak cleared his throat.

"Lady Kisaragi, I must regretfully question your choice of attire this evening. What exactly are you trying to convey to us, a lack of respect for Wutaian tradition?" He asked roughly. Calfak was a warrior, not a diplomat. Katsura and Haru both gave him sharp looks, but he ignored them stoutly, eyes fixed firmly on Yuffie. She barely batted an eyelid – she'd been waiting for this. Calfak never failed to harp after her for tradition's sake. She'd had ready replies for this since she was ten years old.

"Not at all, Lord Shirakawa. Quite the opposite." She placed her hands palm down on either side of the table, and her shoulder armour made a dull clunking sound. "Wutai's history is marked by oceans of blood and a rain of blades upon our enemies, shadows stalking the opponent as though they were a mouse. I have been surprised in a formal kimono once already this evening. I do not wish it to happen again."

"So you mock our traditional battle dress?" Calfak cried. Roko made an irritated sound.

"Shut up, Shirakawa. Have you ever tried to fight in eight skirts and an overcoat? They're bloody annoying. Stop focusing on the ridiculous." She said neatly, fixing the man beside her with an old woman's practised glare. "We came here this evening to speak of Godo. Questions about the future and about other things can wait until the Lady is prepared to speak of them."

Yuffie watched Calfak glower in humiliation and fought the urge to poke her tongue out at him. She'd have to think up some way to reward Roko for that. She straightened herself. "Do any of you have any constructive questions?" The entire male side of the Shirakawa clan bridled at that.

Tori cleared his throat quietly. "Lady Kisaragi... have you any idea what caused Lord Godo to attack you?"

Yuffie looked across the table at him and said, frankly, "A little. With the help of AVALANCHE and a small taskforce from Neo-Shinra, I've been investigating the background and movements of a group known as the Imbued. In our encounters so far we have found them to be both powerful and highly dangerous." She tapped her fingers lightly on the tabletop. "I believe that Lord Godo was convinced to join this group, forcefully or otherwise, and that is why he has acted against Wutai. It is entirely possible that Lord Staniv has also joined the group, and that Lord Gorky, Lady Chekhov and Lady Shake were killed for refusing to comply."

Silence greeted this. Tori blinked his black eyes once and nodded. "What else do you know about the Imbued?" He asked practically. Yuffie very nearly smiled. She had always liked Tori. But now she had to remember to tread carefully.

"Their name refers to the fact that they are fused with the Summon materia. So far we have encountered three of their number other than Godo. Of those three, two remain alive. We don't know how many of them there are. We do know that they appear to be linked to large-scale Shinra experimentation with human subjects, some of which appears to have occurred alongside and even prior to the Jenova Project."

More, louder silence. Calfak burst out, sputtering, "Shinra experimentation? Why then are you working alongside Shinra?"

Yuffie's eyes narrowed. "Shinra is no more. We are working alongside Neo-Shinra, a company under the command and guidance of one of my closest allies." Her voice was low and dangerous. "In any case, this really is not an ideal time to discuss future movement. All this can be placed aside until after the funeral rite of Lord Godo."

Calfak subsided, finally shamed into submission. "As you wish, Lady. Shirakawa will of course do all in our power to aid in the preparation of the funeral ceremony."

Yuffie smiled a little grimly. "That is good to hear. I suggest you plan for rain."

---

"Hold _still_." Elena hissed in frustration. "Whenever you shift, it makes my monitors flicker." She was sitting on the tatami bathed in the milky glow of two laptop computers and the innards of Cait Sith. Reno had come in to pester her a little while ago, but having stepped on several untouchable cables and driving Elena to distraction, he had left again in a hurry. Rude was stretched out on his stomach on his bed, watching her idly through his sunglasses.

Cables trailed from Cait Sith's prodigious stomach to the computers and back again. The monitor on the left showed the Shinra database. The monitor on the right – Elena's computer – showed lines and lines of code. Elena was scanning this for discrepancies and hidden files as she flipped through article after article. There were millions of them, but it was relatively easy to determine if a file was related or not. What was difficult was actually finding relevant material. After three hours in front of her screens with nothing turning up, Elena was getting frustrated.

Rude understood her annoyance with Cait. He did seem to be bobbing around a lot, even for him. "It's not my fault." The robot complained as she made another irritated squawking sound, "The storm makes my switchboard fizz. It's really uncomfortable."

"What are you talking about?" Elena grouched. "You don't even have nerves…"

Rude got up silently and padded to the door. Cait made wide puppy eyes at him. "Don't leave me alone with her!" Elena was scowling too ferociously at her screens to notice the comment but she reached out a hand and dug her fingers into the appendage she managed to grab in order to hold the robot still.

She was highly surprised when Rude shoved a cup of coffee under her nose. "Drink this." He ordered tersely. "Take a break." She skidded back far enough that she didn't have to worry about spilling coffee on her equipment – which was quite a long way in the scheme of things – and sat on the corner of her own bed.

"I just don't want to miss things." She said miserably. "And I know that it's entirely possible that any system I set up will accidentally skip over the file we need because it doesn't understand what we're looking for." She rested the mug against her lower lip and sipped slowly. "Thanks for this."

Rude didn't bother gracing that with a response. He lay back down on his bed and rolled over onto his back, staring at the ceiling.

"Hey, Rude? What do you think we should do?"

"When you find leads, we'll follow them." Rude said monotonously. "In two days. If you don't find anything here, we should probably go to Midgar to check the source."

"I guess so. Hey, I was thinking, since we're pretty sure that this was in some way related to the Jenova Project, d'you think it'd be a good idea to head to Glacier Village and maybe check out Professor Gast's archives? Knowing him, there might be something there that never actually made it into the system." Elena sighed and placed her mug on the floor. "But I _know_ I've seen that sigil in the pagoda before. I wish Reeve's office hadn't been ransacked." She whined petulantly.

She slid back to the floor and continued flicking through articles, occasionally sighing irritably.

When Rude next looked at her computer screen, she was busily typing out code for a foolproof search program. He smiled slightly. _So much for manual labour_.

---

To Vincent and Nanaki had fallen the unenviable task of standing guard over Godo's body. The scent of blood had probably dissipated somewhat, but the scent of death hung heavy in the air, doubly unpleasant to both of them; to Red because of his sensitive nose, and to Vincent because of the connotations summoned by the demons that inhabited his mind.

The great cat paced the room uneasily. It was easy to tell that Red was but a teenager in the years of his species – he was uncomfortable with death, and uneased by the close proximity of the corpse. Vincent reflected that he was perhaps not the best judge of normality in any age group. He and death had been almost constant companions from a young age. He had joined the Turks at… fifteen? His memory strained in an unaccustomed direction, and he frowned. It was indistinct. His first memories were of being a Turk. That worried him more than he cared to admit.

"Is Yuffie right?" Red asked suddenly. Vincent blinked, and Red stared hard at him with his single golden eye. "Is she right? Why would Godo do this?"

"It seems inconsistent that he would leave Wutai freely after so many years struggling to protect it." Vincent said thoughtfully. "We know next to nothing about the Imbued. We cannot discount hypnotism."

Red finally stopped his pacing, his tail curling neatly around his feet as he sat on his haunches. "I hope so." He rumbled softly. He blinked his eye slowly. "Vincent. The Imbued either convinced or abducted Godo to join them. But why would they do that?"

Vincent, from his post by the hole in the wall, shrugged, his eyes flicking from his friend to the darkness outside. "According to Sephiroth, the Imbued are interested in saving the Planet even at the expense of humans, and returning the Summons to their unharnessed state. According to our own research, they were probably created by the Shinra – Hojo, Gast and… Lucrecia." He trailed off, as though speaking of her was painful yet. Red made a rumbling sound that was not quite a growl and not quite a purr deep in his throat.

_So far, we've seen Choco/Mog, Shiva and Leviathan. It seemed as though not all of the experiments in Nibelheim worked out. Does that mean all the Summons worked? We never found them…_

Red wasn't sure he liked the idea of facing off against all the Summons that he and his friends had found in their adventure two years ago. The fur that made up his ruff stood out about his neck, and he shook his head impatiently. This was no time to get spooked. He had to be brave. He was the guardian of Cosmo Canyon, and had been for some time. He nodded to himself, let out a faint but still dangerous-sounding growl, and started stalking about the room again, this time out of confidence and not unease.

Vincent watched the storm, once again trying to ignore the death and the blood. Chaos was making that difficult. He tried to think of other things, and failed miserably. Stop it, Valentine. Stop it right now. But he couldn't stop it. He was caught in an endless spiral of depression and destruction. It was no wonder he had been locked up in that coffin for thirty years…

Vincent bit his tongue savagely, and immediately regretted it. At the taste of blood and pain, Chaos flared even more. A dark chuckle sounded, but it wasn't a sound anyone else could hear. His eyes closed in silent misery, and he clenched his fist. _Damn it…_

"Red? Vincent?" Aeris pushed open the door, and immediately the cat-like creature stopped pacing. Vincent stiffened slightly at the sound of her voice, or possibly at the scent of food. "Dinner!" She chimed. She held a bowl and a glass of water, and Lana came behind her with two bowls of stew. Red sat down on his haunches and eyed the black woman avidly. She chuckled and set down his bowl.

As Red went to, Aeris crossed the room to hand Vincent the glass of water. "You should eat something, and then get some rest. You drive yourself too hard, Vincent. When's the last time you slept?" She scolded him all at once. Vincent thought about it, and wasn't sure. He accepted the plate of stew from Lana and sat on the cleanest patch of tatami he could find. He began to eat quickly and delicately, as though suddenly reminded of how hungry he was.

Or driven by some other appetite, thought Lana. She watched him discreetly for a few seconds, and then said, "Aeris is right. You ought to get some rest, Valentine. You can't stay vigilant forever without some rest." It carried a double meaning he could not ignore, and he looked up at her through dark wisps of fringe, vaguely surprised. So, she had noticed that he was having difficulty maintaining control over the demon. That was interesting. He swallowed, and nodded once.

"I will rest when the Turks take up their posts." He said softly. And not before, he added to himself. He should be able to keep the demon in check even in times of high stress. Tiredness was no excuse for laxness in this respect.

Aeris and Lana took their dishes back to the kitchen when they left. Red and Vincent stared at each other across Godo's body for a while. They were finally distracted by the lanterns of the departing visitors as they returned to their homes to grieve and to prepare for the 'burial' of the Lord of Wutai. Rude and Reno appeared not long afterwards, and silently assumed guard positions at opposite ends of the room, Reno near where Vincent stood, Rude near the window overlooking a small pond outside. Vincent trained his eyes carefully on the flame at the tip of Red's tail. If Reno felt like annoying him this night, it would not do to pay attention to him. He could not allow himself to be distracted while his control was this poor.

Perhaps I do need to rest, he conceded to himself. He turned towards the guest quarters and strode down the hall. He had passed the Turks' room and the room that Cloud, Barret and Cid shared when he came to the realisation that he had not slept since they had left Nibelheim.

As though prompted by this realisation, a wave of vertigo swept over him. Vincent's vision dipped and swayed violently for a moment, and he staggered to the left. Chaos shifted uneasily, and the pressure on his mind eased slightly. Vincent closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and pushed himself away from the wall. A room… an empty room… that's all I need…

He opened the next door he came across and found a large walk-in wardrobe. His eyes scanned the shelves wearily and came across a blanket. He groped after it tiredly and managed to shake out about half of it before another wave of vertigo assailed him. This time he did not quite manage to catch himself, sliding to the floor in a red-caped heap. His human hand fussed at the blanket for a split second, knowing he should cover himself with it completely, but as sleep claimed him even that small movement ceased.

Vincent slept like the dead.

---

A/N: Please let me know what you thought. :)


	19. After Tears

Disclaimer: Don't own anyone from FF7. I own Lana, Feather, the Imbued, Vincent's past… blah de blah. Don't steal, don't own, don't sue! I also don't own the names of Yuffie's cats... they're the Souma/Sohma clan of _Fruits Basket_ fame.

A/N: One day we will make it out of Wutai.

****

Faith and Feather

Chapter Nineteen: After Tears

__

I'm free but I'm focused

I'm green but I'm wise

I'm hard but I'm friendly, baby

I'm sad but I'm laughing

I'm brave but I'm chicken shit

I'm sick but I'm pretty, baby

-- "Hand In My Pocket" Alanis Morisette

When Yuffie's eyes cracked open, she could tell that it was not quite morning. She frowned vaguely at her dimly lit ceiling and wondered with half her brain what time it was. (The other half was covering its head with a pillow and muttering curses against the times prior to nine in the morning.) The clouds outside made it difficult to tell. She could still hear the rain pounding on her roof. Somehow rather than lulling her back to sleep, it filled her with energy. She groaned as she realised there was no _way_ she was getting back to sleep.

A softer moan seemed to echo hers. For a moment she thought she had imagined it, but then she heard it again - a soft, breathless whimper, the creak of tatami. Yuffie froze immediately - was it one of her friends? Were they hurt? Was there an enemy in the room? She listened intently, and heard only her own carefully regulated breathing, and that of the twelve cats asleep all around her. She rolled quickly to the side and leaped out of her bed to land silently on the tatami beside it. Her eyes darted around the room, and she relaxed slightly to find that it was empty but for the cats, which were now glaring at her for disturbing their sleep. But they didn't explain the sound.

Her shuriken, which had remained in her hands even as she slept, was raised before her as she made her way across the room to the shoji door that divided her room and her wardrobe. Another moan made her certain that this was where the sound was coming from. She opened the door quickly, wincing at the clacking sound it made, and held out the Conformer defensively. There was no one there. She took a cautious step inside, and paused. On the other side of the room, there was a large pile of cloth she simply did not remember leaving there. The pile of cloth shifted ever so slightly in the dim light, and Yuffie's mind suddenly aligned with the shadows - it was Vincent, half-draped in a blanket he must have pulled from the shelves a little above his head. Yuffie lowered her shuriken in confusion. What on earth was he doing here?

__

You numbskull. He hasn't been sleeping again.

She frowned and thought back before realising it was true. Venturing closer, she noticed the taught lines of his face and immediately her frown deepened. Was he having a nightmare? Vincent's nightmares always seemed so much more terrifying than her own. Anything that could cause this depth of emotion in Vincent's face had to be powerful. She took a few steps closer and looked down at him with a mixture of chagrin and sympathy. He looked as though he had collapsed here, exhausted. She could read the signs as well as anyone.

She went to her knees beside him and gently removed the bunched blanket from beneath his human hand. There was nothing she could do to improve the way he was sleeping without waking him, but she could at least make sure the blanket covered him. Wutai was cool at night. She spread the blanket over him, and he twitched to the side with another tortured moan. "Nooo…"

Yuffie's grey eyes stung suddenly and she had to rub at them furiously. Why did Vincent always seem to rouse such emotion in her? For such an outwardly cold man, he had touched something deep within her. It hurt her that he could hurt this much. How could she leave him to his nightmares?

__

He'll be mad if I wake him up. Embarrassed.

That wasn't right. Vincent didn't _get_ embarrassed. But all the same, he wouldn't be happy that she had seen him in a moment of weakness. She sat there on the floor beside him as his head rolled back and forth, disturbed. But his movements were less violent now, and he seemed to be quieting. She stood quietly and moved back as his face began to relax, a smile flickering across her features as the Vincent equivalent of a peaceful expression settled on his face. She retreated to her room and sat down on the bed with her legs crossed.

What was everyone else doing at - she glanced at the clock - four in the morning? Probably sleeping, she decided. Not everyone would be, of course. Cloud would have appointed guards, presumably the Turks. She sat for a few moments, idly twisting a lock of her hair. The funeral would be today. Just the thought of it made her want to crawl back under her covers and sleep until all of it was over. But it wouldn't work like that. Godo would be delivered to Leviathan. And judging by the storm, the waves would take him to the bottom of the river before he even escaped the mainland. He wouldn't so much as make it to the Great Mother Ocean. She wrapped her arms around her legs in an effort to stifle a shiver and found tears stinging her eyes once again.

Surrounded by her cats, Lady Kisaragi closed her eyes and allowed her tears to seep from beneath her eyelids and down her cheeks. She would miss her father desperately. She would miss the guidance of the Five Mighty Gods. And yet, despite the despair that washed over her in a suffocating wave, deep within her there was still a spark. A tiny light still shone in her heart and in her mind.

Staniv might yet live.

------------

__

His eyes were fixed upon the creature in the blood red orb. He held the tiny globe in his hands and stared through the crystal at the creature. Its skin was a stormy purple, but the skin stretched over its wings was a harsh, mottled scarlet. The creature's claws grated against the inside of the orb. It was trying to get out.

From the cracks it was making in the side of the orb came a colourful whirling of smoke, burnt orange and pale lilac and venomous green. He watched as the smoke swirled over his hands, and suddenly there were not hands, there were claws. Paws. Fins. He dropped the orb in shock, and because he no longer had fingers.

The orb shattered into a thousand pieces, and the creature vanished into the whirl of smoke. It condensed again before him a split second later, taller than he was, now, and twice as broad. It bared its teeth at him and let out a low, bestial rumble.

Back, demon. Get out of my dreams.

__

The demon fisted its clawed hands at him, and roared louder. The harsh voice had an almost desperate quality to it.

Out! Stay away from me!

__

It reached out as though it would ensnare him in its claws, and he stumbled backwards to the stony ground. One of his hands started to bleed. The other made a dull clank as it impacted. He looked down, dreading what he would see.

From one hand, blood ran from numerous scrapes on the palm. But even as he watched, the cuts were closing, the bruises vanishing. The other hand was burnished bronze, curved into wicked points. His vision sharpened. He could hear the laboured breath of the beast before him, and the calm movements of another set of lungs behind him. He could smell another human on the wind. He turned.

Yuffie stood there, her hands clasped gently in front of her. She stared through him with dull red eyes, as though she didn't recognise him any more. Then her body began to turn to crystal and then to dissolve into dust. He reached out both the appendages that could loosely be dubbed hands, but she made no move to accept his aid, and by the time he had moved forward, there was nothing left for him to hold on to.

It… it's not… no…

__

He whirled to face the demon. It smiled, the fangs relaxing into flanges on the jaw. Then it too became crystal, and then dust, and he was left alone in his head.

------------

Vincent awoke with a start, and fought his way free of the blanket that had covered him. It was early morning and still raining. He shivered with sudden cold and huddled in the blanket once again. Even outside the dream, he could smell Yuffie. He frowned at that, and stared groggily around him. The wardrobe. He noticed the expensive-looking kimonos that had eluded him last night and made a small sound that denoted annoyance at his own idiocy. Had he fallen asleep in Yuffie's dressing room? He frowned and passed a hand over his eyes, then turned his attention to the blanket.

He had been completely trapped within it only moments before. He certainly didn't remember spreading it over himself that evenly. He raised it very carefully to his face and buried his nose in it, inhaling deeply. _Yuffie_. Vincent thought it more than a little concerning that he could recognise the scent of her unperfumed skin. He rocked to his feet and stared at the blanket in his hands. _She must have covered me properly last night…_ That wasn't right. She shouldn't have to take care of anyone except herself, particularly at this time. He stood a moment longer, holding the blanket as though it was a foreign object, then folded it loosely and put it back where he had found it.

It was later than he had realised - about seven. The rest of the household was coming reluctantly awake, but so far as he could tell, they hadn't made a move out of their bedrooms yet. He stepped into the kitchen and was immediately assailed by the sweet aroma of jasmine tea. Yuffie glanced over from where she stood at the sink and nodded to him. "Good morning, Vinnie. How're you feeling today?"

Vincent regarded her unflinchingly. It seemed to him that her eyes were a little redder than he remembered them, her face more flushed. "I think I should be asking that of you." He replied, moving closer. Yuffie faltered, but only for a second.

"That's because you haven't seen your hair this morning, monster man." She replied smugly, calmly pouring herself a cup of the sweet-smelling liquid whose aroma had filled the entire kitchen. Vincent gave her a blank look and raised his hand to pat ineffectually at his hair, which somewhat resembled a porcupine's quills after an ambush by hair gel and a blow drier. Yuffie gave an empty-sounding snigger and poured him a cup of jasmine tea.

Vincent accepted it, eyes concerned. "Thankyou." He murmured quietly. They stood silently for a few minutes, savouring the tea. Vincent shifted uneasily. "Yuffie…"

"Don't start pitying me." She cut him off sharply. "Don't even think about it." Her eyes were focused dead ahead, the same colour as a sword blade. Vincent watched her from the corner of his eye and nodded.

"I will quote you when I say that sympathy is not the same as pity, Yuffie." He said softly. Yuffie's jaw clenched. Vincent spoke again, very quietly. "I was going to ask why you covered me last night."

That had been unexpected. She turned to stare blankly at him, then said, "Oh. That." It took her a while to collect her thoughts. "Well… you looked cold." She said uneasily. Vincent gave her a look. "…you were having a nightmare, all right? I woke up when I heard you moaning." She gave her jasmine tea a singularly disturbed look, and cleared her throat. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Vincent thought about that for quite some time. Did he want to talk about it? No. It was just a dream, brought on by too much stress to his consciousness and sleep deprivation. It was nothing to become concerned about. In any case, should he not be doing something to reduce Yuffie's own level of stress? She was so young… she was strong, but even so, she should not have to handle so much all on her own. He sighed softly. "No, Yuffie. It is unimportant. Nothing but a dream." And how was he to tell her that he had dreamed of her? His troubled eyes slid across the counter against his will and came to rest on her small, pale hands. Indeed. How was any man supposed to tell a woman a thing like that? Memory assailed him.

__

"I dreamed about you last night." Blue eyes were amused beneath black bangs.

"That's fascinating, Vincent." Her tone was dry, but he knew she was flattered.

"And the night before that." He wormed his way closer across the grass.

"…Don't you tease me, Mr Valentine." She laughed, catching his face in both hands. Her pale grey eyes sparkled like silver in the sunshine. She glanced about covertly, then leaned forward to kiss him. He grinned against her lips.

"And tonight, I'll dream of you again."

Vincent shook his head suddenly and set down his cup of tea with a sharp clatter. Yuffie glanced at him, opening her mouth to inform him that she didn't want another of her tea sets smashed, and paused at the look on his face. His eyes were wide, lips slightly parted. Was it her imagination, or was his breathing faster? She frowned. "Vinnie?"

"Nothing. It's nothing." Vincent said abruptly, and swept from the room. Yuffie stared after him with a saddened expression and heaved a great sigh. She hoped somebody else would wake up soon. She needed company this morning.

------------

The funeral of Godo Kisaragi was a particularly quiet event. Yuffie stood alone in the centre of the largest and most impressive bridge in Wutai. In the rain, the entire town seemed to wilt, as though it, too, shrank in on itself at the death of its leader these decades past. Yuffie herself stood as tall as her tiny frame would allow, though her dark hair clung to her cheeks. She would not cringe from the blessing of Leviathan.

She wasn't sure how much of a blessing it was any more, after the actions of the Imbued. She wasn't sure how happy Leviathan was with her village right now.

Her kimono was dove grey with pink embroidery. There were too many layers, but she was glad of them today - the water had yet to work its way to her body, except where it trickled down her neck and in between her breasts. She fought down shivers.

The entire village, plus AVALANCHE, the Neo-Shinra employees and Feather, was gathered on either side of the river, downstream so that they could watch the body as it made its way towards the ocean. The body. She was already thinking of it as the body. She couldn't bear to think of it as her father on the raft behind her.

She began to speak, voice high and strong over the pouring rain. Aeris couldn't understand a word that came out of her mouth, but as the rain poured down like a translucent curtain, she found she didn't need to. Though Yuffie's face was carefully blank, her sorrow permeated the gathering. Heads that had been held defiant dipped uncertainly toward the ground and then fixed firmly there, eyes sliding closed as they battled against tears. It was at times like this that Aeris hated her empathy.

Not only the human sorrow touched her. Though the weight of fifty bereaved villagers would have proved too much for her to bear in any case, and though she would have wept for Yuffie's sake ven had she hated Godo... she could feel the sorrow of Leviathan as well as the Summon's vengeful anger at its betrayal. Its regret filled the air... or perhaps poured from the sky to seep into the land around her, the river before her. She knew that she was crying. Crying with everyone. With everything.

Feather stood silent beside Reeve, her hands for once at her sides, not clutching fitfully at the president's sleeves and shirt tails. Though the rain masked it well, she too was crying. Her shoulders shook and her hands twitched occasionally as though she wanted to do something with them but couldn't quite bring herself to. She closed her pale eyes and her darkly tattooed lips turned down at the corners. Bedraggled and faded as she was, she seemed to meld with the rainy landscape and vanish into the foreground.

The Turks stood at the very edge of the river, their heads bowed, each recalling and mourning the death of a very different but similarly cherished Wutaian. Elena was not crying, but the rain had made the mascara run down her cheeks so that no one would know from looking at her. Reno was particularly pale today, the scars on his cheeks livid so that they stood out like burning brands rather than the particularly old scratches that they proved themselves to be every other day. His red spikes drooped morosely, made heavy with the weight of the rain drops. Rude stood silent and immovable as always, but behind his sunglasses his eyes were closed and his jaw was tightly clenched.

Vincent alone seemed to be paying any attention to Yuffie, which was only fitting, since only he could understand the language. But through the pouring of the rain in his ears and the relentless pulse of Chaos through his veins, even he could barely distinguish her words. The scant glimmer of his red eyes was fixed upon the river as it flowed past in a foaming torrent. Occasionally he caught recognisable glimpses of his reflection, though these were as rare as hearing the words Yuffie spoke. His ears perked slightly as he caught another glimpse of himself, and sure enough he could discern a mention of AVALANCHE in the flood of Wutaian that no doubt made more sense to the villagers than to him.

The flow of words stopped suddenly, as though they had hit a dam wall. Yuffie, who had raised her hands imploringly to the river, lowered them abruptly. From her right came Katsura and Shuuichi, Roko and Gen. Together they lifted the raft and bore Godo off the bridge to Yuffie's left, following a set path down to the river's edge. They walked directly into the river, and the current seemed to ease around them.

Vincent watched, his interest piqued, as they waded into the centre of the river. Surely it wasn't really that shallow? But even the tiny Roko was able to keep her head above the water as they stopped in the very center of the river.

"Wutai **vynafammc Muht **Godo,** drendo-drent taclahtahd uv** Kisaragi. **Leviathan kiota ouin fyo**."

These words Vincent heard most clearly of all. From the corner of his eye, he saw both Feather and Aeris suddenly open their eyes and lean forwards slightly, as though straining to catch something that would slip from their fingers any second. The water around the four Wutaians in the river stilled to barely a ripple, though near the river's edge the current was quite violent.

As one, they took their hands away from the raft.

Reno, who had been expecting Godo's body to be wrenched from the hands of his bearers and smashed violently through the river's twists and turns, was quite stunned when the raft began its serene, leisurely progress towards the bridge. As though still alive and enjoying a stroll, Godo drifted past his daughter lazily and passed beneath the bridge. She watched with grim satisfaction as he was carried out of sight, eyes fixed out to the distance even when she couldn't possibly see him any more, imagining his safe progress to the great Mother Ocean. She had been afraid his raft would be smashed by Leviathan in retribution for what he had done, but the god was more forgiving than she had given him credit for. She thanked him silently for that.

The village was weeping. Katsura had dropped to her knees in the middle of the river, her long dark hair streaming around her as she keened, hands outstretched towards where her lord had been. Shuuichi's head was bowed, his face screwed up as he desperately fought against the urge to do the same. Gen bowed his head. Roko alone stood firm in the renewed onslaught of the river's rage, though her chin was bare inches from the surface. The four waded out of the river again, their steps sinking, leaden, into the silt bottom of the river. It seemed much deeper on the way back.

Katsura's hair clung to her, fine strands pasted to her soping kimono over her shoulders, her back, her breasts. Slim shoulders shook, but she refused to allow her emotions through the calm appearance again. Shuuichi put an arm about her shoulders and led her wordlessly away. Useless to stay here in the pouring rain. Useless to weep.

Yuffie stood alone on the bridge, her head bowed so low that her chin nearly touched her chest. Her hands were clenched against her collarbone, the silk of the kimono clinging to her frame. She wanted to die. She wanted to sink to her knees on that bridge and just die.

She took a deep breath.

But then the Imbued would not be punished. Her father would not have vengeance. _She_ would not have vengeance. And her village, the village she had fought for since she developed the will to fight, would be left adrift and useless, a shell of its former self.

Yuffie turned and walked slowly off the bridge. She stopped just behind Cloud.

"There's nothing left out here. Let's go back to my pagoda."

It was truly her pagoda, now.

------------

Rude was sitting in the dining room, legs crossed, nursing a bowl of jasmine tea. Vincent had prepared it as soon as they had returned and Rude had since decided that coffee just didn't feel right in this place. The red cloaked man had disappeared, presumably taking more of the tea to Yuffie. Rude hoped the girl was feeling all right.

When Vincent re-entered the room a little while later, the pot of tea was still steaming and he looked just a little crestfallen. He poured himself a bowl carefully and then sat down opposite Rude, legs crossed neatly on the tatami. The ex-Turk would have looked at home if not for his bedraggled appearance and outlandish clothing. And the eyes. Eyes that fierce, that cold, did not belong in any sort of home, especially with the icy silence pervading every inch of the room.

"She's not thirsty?" Rude asked after a while, for the first time really understanding why so many people found his silence to be unnerving. Vincent blinked once slowly and shook his head. Rude sighed softly and finished his tea in silence.

"She blames herself." As Rude stood to leave the room, Vincent felt pressed to add. "Don't upset her any further." He warned softly. Rude blinked behind his glasses - had it been so obvious that he was going to speak to Yuffie? He had hardly known himself. But Vincent was right, he did have something to say to the girl. He supposed he would have to go to her and say it, now. He nodded to the gunman's curt command and glided smoothly from the room.

He found Yuffie in her bedroom, dressed in the brightest yellow kimono she had been able to find and completely covered in cats. She didn't appear to have been crying, but she certainly wasn't her usual chipper self. Rude was inappropriately amused by the loud rumble of comfort purring that emanated from the cats.

Rude strode over to the window and looked out into the rain. Eventually he said, "I understand how you're feeling. This was not your fault." That was all. Yuffie's hands continued their path across the scruff of the ginger tom draped across her shoulders and the pitch-black animal sprawled across her knees. The black cat watched Rude with half-lidded eyes of amber veined with chocolate. After a while it shifted back against its mistress and gave Rude a look of smug satisfaction.

The absence of the purring was like a silent explosion. One by one, the cats trickled away, each butting perfunctorily at Rude's shins before slipping from the room. Apparently they felt that Yuffie didn't require their support any longer. Rude reasoned that if she didn't need her cats any more, she certainly didn't need him. He stood a moment longer at the window and then turned and padded quietly from the room.

------------

Vincent was afraid. It wasn't the sort of fear that clutched tightly at the breath, drove the warmth from the blood, but it was fear all the same. A relentless nagging in the back of his mind that he couldn't just dismiss as Chaos playing tricks on him.

Yuffie had given him bare monosyllables despite his carefully verbose attempt at interaction over jasmine tea. It wasn't like her. She should never be cold, should never be numb like this. And yet she was, and he had no idea of how to stop it.

The bowl in his hand had gone cold. Vincent set it down silently on the squat table and set his hand upon his rain-dampened knee. He was cold. He hadn't really felt it outside, but with the fire tracing warmth across his back, the icy temperature of the rest of his body had become that much more noticeable. Even the metal of his claw seemed warmer than his flesh.

Vincent's eyes flicked to the door as a stream of cats entered in single file, beginning with a creature so black it was almost blue and ending with a tiny cream puff of a kitten. Vincent's eyes rose expectantly to where Yuffie's face would appear, but he was disappointed – the ninja had not followed her cats.

Bloody eyes followed the black leader as it strode with lazy purpose around the table. Vincent was most surprised when it climbed calmly into his lap and settled there, and more shocked to find that the thick fur masked a form so frail and bony he wondered if the creature was sick. The rest of the creatures followed suit against Vincent's silent protest, with the ginger tom that had been draped around Yuffie's shoulders settling himself beneath Vincent's elbow and the tiny white kitten scaling its way to the heights of Vincent's shoulder. (None seemed to question the black's sole right to the lap.) He was nearly deafened when the animals began to purr.

Vincent stared out in surprise from a mountain of felines as Rude re-entered the room. The Turk took one look at Vincent and left again, leaving only a silent strain of amusement behind him.

Vincent's eyes slid down to the black cat in his lap. The cat stared back with unshakeable confidence. After some time, Vincent blinked. The cat, whose name was Akito, according to his collar, looked away and began to lick his paws in a distinctly smug fashion. Vincent wondered what exactly Chaos thought about being outstared by a cat.

------------

Much later that night – so late that the earliest touch of dawn could be seen on the horizon – a small red light flashed repeatedly, in sympathy with a red and white logo on Elena's computer screen. The blond woman was dozing in front of the machine, hand still on the mouse, though her fingers had slipped back to where her palm should have been. An empty mug was several inches from her other hand.

The distance between her carefully maintained eyebrows narrowed as her mind began to respond to the flashing light on the other side of her closed eyelids. After several minutes of frowning almost sullenly, Elena cracked one eye open and rolled it around to view the computer screen. The other eye opened almost immediately and the blond Turk shot upright, cramming her left hand in her mouth to muffle a small shriek of excitement.

Before her on the computer screen was a glowing replica of the sigil that had been burned into the top floor of the Temple of Five Mighty Gods. Listed in the frame beside the image were another forty or so image files and about three hundred separate report files. Elena scanned them quickly, all tiredness in her slowly being replaced with a glee that threatened to explode from her in a fit of giggling. There were two or three files from nearly fifty years ago that had Professor Gast as their author, but most were written by Hojo.

Elena grinned so hard her cheeks started to hurt. _After my little adventure with the system two years ago, you deleted everything you could, you murderous little weasel. But you can't hide anything from me._

Carefully she noted down the file locations on the pad beside her and set the laptop to downloading all the information from the Neo-Shinra database. She sat back and watched the percentage increase for a few seconds before glancing about the room. Rude and Reno were sleeping quietly, though Reno sounded a little stuffy due to his interaction with Yuffie's herd of cats. Lana was a little louder, snoring softly. Reeve snuffled occasionally in his sleep. Feather slept like the dead, even quieter than she was when awake. Her namesake item was still clutched tightly in her hand. Elena could barely hold in a little snort of annoyance. Here, she'd discovered everything they'd ever need to know about the Imbued and the process that made them, and no one was awake to share her victory. Well, this was a time for celebration.

She went to make coffee.

------------

A/N: And there you have it. Please review and let me know what you thought. Next chapter, some of the mysteries behind the Imbued are revealed and AVALANCHE _finally leave Wutai!_ Yatta! (And they're not going to Nibelheim, either, which is an even bigger accomplishment for me.)


	20. The Sigils

Disclaimer: I do not own anything or anyone from _Final Fantasy VII_. I do own Lana, Feather, the Imbued, the cadet and this storyline.

A/N: And welcome to another chapter. In which Vincent dreams yet more bad dreams and AVALANCHE finally make it out of Wutai. (Does anyone else feel like Sephiroth has just... disappeared? ;; I'm pretty sure famous mass-murdering swordsmen aren't supposed to do that... unless they're on the run...) All "Wutaian" is **bolded** so you know what's what. Here is a new, prettiful "Wutaian" translator.

http:albhed. netfirms. com/

Just take out the spaces and you'll be ready to roll.

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter Twenty: The Sigils

_Maybe you'll kill yourself before I get a turn_

_Maybe I'll fall in love and never learn_

_Take the rope to my heart and fall..._

_You may just be the last before you_

_See the black tangled heart_

_Fall for you_

-- "Black Tangled Heart", Silverchair

Yuffie found herself wide awake at five o' clock the following morning. She couldn't explain the sudden surge of energy, she could only bow before it as it motored her body out of its warm hollow in the covers and into a simple grey robe and dark blue obi. It was the dark blue her father had often worn. Yuffie smiled at it a little sadly as she tugged a brush through her hair and tied it at the nape of her neck. She had a feeling she'd be remembering little details like that for the rest of her life. But... the memories didn't hurt her. They were only memories, after all.

She walked barefoot down the hall, noticing little things, like that the sky was still so dark - whether with thunder clouds or night she couldn't tell - that only faint beams of light trickled down from the frequent skylights along the hall. She could hear the quiet rush of raindrops on the roof still. At this rate, she thought grimly, Leviathan would pour the whole ocean down on the village before he was satisfied.

She stifled a sigh at that and looked down at the polished floor beneath her feet. She frowned at the unnatural brightness that overtook it at the end of the hall - the lights were on in the kitchen. She glanced up at a chuckle from beside the counter.

Elena slid from the bench top, careful to avoid slopping her mug of coffee on the floor, and grinned eagerly at Yuffie. "You'll never guess what I found this morning," she challenged, eyes alight with the manic gleam of one who has had more than three cups of coffee but less than ten. Yuffie stared at her a little blankly for long enough for Elena to explode with, "I'll give you a hint: I hacked Hojo's deleted files."

It took a few moments for Yuffie's mind to latch onto that, but once it had there was nothing that could stop her. She darted across the kitchen and grabbed both of Elena's arms, eyes alight with her own special morning glee. "You found something? What did you find?"

Elena carefully removed her coffee arm from Yuffie's grip, that ecstatic and slightly drugged grin never leaving her face. "The sigils. Reports on subjects, experimental data, the method of imbuing... _everything we need to know is there_." She sounded inordinately pleased with herself. As far as Yuffie was concerned, she had the right to be.

"Elena. I love you. Have all the coffee in the pagoda." She said in that strangely calm tone just this side of hysteria. Then she grabbed the Turk's arms and performed what is invariably known as the happy dance - joyful bouncing upon the balls of one's feet while twirling slightly and grinning like an idiot. It was this scene that Vincent happened upon as he dragged his black-socked feet into the kitchen, looking generally like something the cat had dragged in - this was not entirely due to the large amounts of cat hair covering his black suit. He frowned absently at Yuffie and Elena as they giggled and spun, making his way across the kitchen to the counter.

Yuffie was not about to let him come in peace. "Vinnie! Vinnie, Vinnie, Vinnie, Elena is the hackingest hacker that ever hacked!" And then, while Vincent's beleaguered mind was still trying to process 'hackingest', she launched herself at him and managed to latch her arms around his neck for a few moments. Vincent froze. Yuffie held on tightly for a moment and then slid to the ground, spinning away to resume her dance with Elena. "She hacked... Hojo's files... and she's got... all the info...!" She sung lightly as she bounced.

Vincent's human hand was clenched around a small tea bowl, eyes squeezed shut for a split second. Then he opened his eyes and Elena was surprised to find happiness there, happiness that she could read, which was a rare thing from Vincent Valentine. "That is good news." He said, and his voice was warmer than usual.

The ninja released Elena's hands and skidded to a halt, placing her hands on her narrow hips. "It's damn fantastic news, Vinnie." Her grey eyes were lit almost to silver with excitement. "I am going to go wake everyone up! Then I am going to call a council while you guys look the information over! We can be out of Wutai and on our way to wherever by the time the sun sets!" She flounced away out of the kitchen, having used entirely too many explanation marks for Vincent's liking. Elena blanched.

"Uh, Yuffie...! I'll handle the Turks, Reno's kinda trigger-happy if you wake him up wrong...!" The blond Turk hurried off after the younger girl, leaving Vincent to stare tiredly after them. Neither had noticed anything wrong with him - that was good. He'd been worried about trying to get something past Yuffie. The only other people to worry about would be... Tifa and perhaps Aeris. But everyone should be sufficiently enthused by this development to completely ignore the fact that he was feeling a little under the weather.

Not that the phrase adequately described anything, he thought with a soft snort of disdain.

He'd dreamed of Chaos again last night. He'd dreamed of a village aflame; bold red banners with black characters illegible through the smoke. He remembered the screams with surprising clarity - 'monster', 'fiend'. Vincent stared at the plumes of steam that emerged from the spout of Yuffie's kettle and frowned, recalling the similar blurring of screaming, burning faces through black smoke.

"...listening? Vincent?"

He blinked and his head snapped towards the voice. Red XIII had appeared in the kitchen. Vincent hadn't heard him come in. Red eyed him calculatingly - or perhaps it was just a feature of the single, golden glowing eye. Vincent took up the kettle with his claw and tipped it expertly through the open dome of a teapot. A questioning silence fell. Eventually, Red padded away, ignoring Vincent's carefully posed silence. Vincent stared after him with a slight frown and then returned his ruby gaze to the teapot.

* * *

Red XIII made soft, concerned rumbles to himself as he prowled along the corridor that lead to the many bedrooms of the Kisaragi pagoda. He paused at a doorway near the end of the hall, snuffled for a moment, and then pushed the door open with his shoulder.

He circled for a few moments to be sure and then lay down, great shaggy head resting between his forepaws. So, Vincent had slept here last night - but not before that, it seemed. And this morning, he had gotten up and the scent of Chaos had followed him from his bed out into the kitchen. Red wondered absently how he even knew it was Chaos' scent, when it was only vaguely reptilian and otherwise fairly nondescript.

Its very uniformity made it stand out in this pagoda, though. There was a scent to everything, the floors, the walls, the windows. It was a carefully constructed haven, soothing and energising oils either rubbed into every inch of the pagoda or existing there purely by coincidence. Red wasn't sure if the Wutaians even knew they were doing it, but it was a good way to make a dwelling. Much better than just propping up bits of steel, he thought, with a snort at memories of his frist trip to Midgar.

But... His mind circled back to the question at hand - why and how had Chaos' influence become more pronounced all of a sudden? He pushed himself to all four paws with a heavy sigh. Perhaps Vincent had merely had yet another of his nightmares, though Red had thought him mostly freed from that curse long ago. He shifted his weight uneasily from paw to paw and finally let out a frustrated snarl.

If he noticed it again, he'd follow it up. Until then, he would hope that Vincent knew what he was doing.

* * *

Hours later, Yuffie was busily organising the affairs of Wutai with Gen, Roko, Shuuichi and Katsura. Elena had meanwhile set her computer up so that it could project the contents of its own screen onto the shoji door behind it. AVALANCHE was eagerly crammed into the room, sitting on the four futons and squashed into spaces across the floor. No one seemed to be complaining just yet, but Elena was willing to bet her next pay packet that Reno or Cid would be the first.

She pulled up the first image and cleared her throat. "Okay, everyone - we all agree this is the sigil burned into the floor of the pagoda, right?" She waited for assent. "I've gone ahead and assumed that this is the Leviathan Sigil. On that basis, the following images should represent the rest of the Summons. There are a few I can't place, but I think I can name these as being Shiva, Ifrit, Choco/Mog, Ramuh, Titan..." She flicked between the images rapidly, trying not to linger on any one of them for too long. For some reason, the sigils had a certain powerful quality, something that made her skin crawl if she stared. She kept her eyes on her mouse as she clicked. "I'm not sure how important these images are to us, but I would suggest that each of the Imbued probably has some sort of tattoo, like the numbers given to the clones in the Jenova Project."

She closed the image window and highlighted several columns of files. "These files are more or less Hojo documenting the entirety of the procedure. From what I've read so far, it appears that the same sort of tanks that were in Nibelheim were also held in a laboratory in Midgar, though the precise location hasn't been specified so far." Elena dragged up one of the files and scrolled down until she foudn a diagram she'd found particularly enlightening. "From what I can tell, Imbuing basically draws out the power enclosed in materia through immersion of both subject and materia in refined mako. Earlier stages of the process were carried out with mako pumped directly from the Planet, but this caused severe physical deformation in the subjects prior to sudden death, apparently through paralysation. The use of mako direct from the Lifestream was, funnily enough, also found to cause mako poisoning."

Cloud's eyes narrowed slightly. "That sounds a lot like the process that SOLDIER members go through..."

Elena smiled slightly. "Got it in one. I think what might have happened is that all the stat materia like HP Plus and Luck Plus were used early on in SOLDIER. Now - well, not really now..." She amended with a shrug. "Just prior to the fall of Shinra, the process of creating SOLDIER was immersion in pure mako, because that alone was enough to mutate the bodies and spirits of the subjects to be satisfactory to Heidegger." She ploughed on, ignoring the slight wince on Cloud's face and the worried gleam in Tifa's eyes. "So, what I think might have happened is, the use of the materia might have proved either too dangerous, too expensive or too powerful to be continued."

Cloud nodded curtly, the arm slung around his knees tightening a little.

Elena took a deep breath and continued. "As the name suggests, Imbuing furnishes the subject with the abilities of the materia. It seems to work much like applying an Elemental materia..." Elena flicked over to another document. "So if a person were Imbued with a Fire materia, they would be able to summon the effects of Fire, Fire2 and Fire3 without the use of any additional materia. They would become invulnerable to fire magic, but they would also have an elemental disadvantage against something like Earth."

"So does that mean that a person could just keep being Imbued with different materia until they had the abilities of all materia?" Tifa asked. She paused. "And does anyone else feel as though Yuffie should _so_ be here, since she probably knows more about materia than the rest of us put together?" The room chuckled and murmured their collective assent except for Rude, who was not prone to participating in conversation and Vincent, who was not amused.

Elena shrugged. "I really couldn't say - there might be some information on that in here, but I haven't had the time to go through it all in detail. However, I think from what I've read so far that if someone was Imbued with two opposing elements... fire and ice, say... well, there might be problems." She smiled slightly. "It's a pity that the Imbuing process takes at least five years, really, since if we could just flash-Imbue using opposing element materia..."

"Concentrate on what we know, 'Laney." Reno drawled with a grin at his younger colleague.

"Who's the genius hacker here, Mr What's-A-Mouse?" Elena replied immediately. "All the information I've read so far indicates the presence of a laboratory in Midgar, but I've never seen head nor tail of it. That either means it's been destroyed, put to a new use, or it's underground. Also, we should keep in mind that since the Imbued kidnapped Reeve, _they_ were probably looking for this laboratory as well, or the information we've just come across. Normally, only the President would be able to access these files."

"They didn't ask me any questions..." Reeve's brow furrowed. "They... I don't even recall seeing or hearing anyone."

Feather raised a hand, the other still resting on Reeve's forearm. "The Imbued... were definitely looking for something. I didn't know what it was before, but now I think they are looking for this laboratory... perhaps in order to replicate the process?" She ventured softly. Elena blinked.

"That isn't a bad idea, but from what I've see so far, any attempt to perform a second Imbuing with any given Summon only ended in the subject falling into a persistent vegetative state." She murmured. Reno blinked.

"A what now?"

Lana gave him an irritated glance. "A vegetable, Turk." Reno's green eyes narrowed slightly and he crossed his arms. Rude let out a soft sigh from his position by the door and Elena gave Reno an embarrassed sort of look. Tifa stifled a giggle.

Reeve glanced at his employee, amusement surfacing briefly in his amber eyes. "So they were looking for the information. That means that we'll have to move quickly and try to beat them to it. I doubt we'll have done that, so we'll have to be on guard against them at all times. And also, uh, Cait found something..."

The black feline tapped his foot impatiently against his moogle's forehead and grinned when he had everyone's undivided attention. "Borrowed some of Elena's bandwidth last night to sneak a peek at some of our satellite images. As y'all know, since Godo kicked the bucket-" Tifa let out a snort of annoyance and Vincent's eyes narrowed at the phrasing. "-there's been a massive storm worldwide. Gold Saucer's already received more than five times its average annual rainfall." The robotic cat's tail whipped back and forth for a few seconds. "I checked the weather reports for the time that Shiva was out in the open, and I gotta say it doesn't look good. There was a thirty-degree temperature dip in Costa del Sol - and that was just in the few minutes Shiva was between body and materia. So the bottom line is, unless we get Leviathan back into his materia or find some other way of placating him, it's gonna be awfully wet."

Silence. Cloud bit his lip and looked awfully worried for a few minutes, then said, "Wutai should know some ways to placate him, right? I mean, he's their god and all..."

Vincent nodded. No one was looking at him at the time, so he cleared his throat. "There are ceremonies. They will almost certainly reduce the rainfall in the Wutai area."

Tifa said, "What if we ask the Wutaians to send out task forces to perform the ceremonies elsewhere?" Vincent shook his head decisively, but offered no further input. Rude glanced at him and then at Tifa.

"Leviathan is a strictly localised god." He said. "Wutai is his only responsibility, and Wutaians the only humans he gives a damn about. Da Chao is the same."

No one quite knew what to say to that. Eventually Cid got to his feet with an exaggerated yawn. "Guess I'll go get the Highwind ready to roll, then."

"Looks like a job for our favourite Leviathangy." Reno commented, leaping to his feet with loud cracks from both his ankles. From across the room, Vincent snorted disdainfully.

"Leviathan-**geh**."

"Whatever."

* * *

Sephiroth was fidgeting. Aeris hadn't thought that a man with a General's training would fidget, but he was sitting beside her on the wide wooden porch of the pagoda, long legs protruding over the edge of the porch into the rain, and he was fidgeting. It had gone on for about fifteen minutes so far, and Aeris was very close to breaking a rib in her attempts to keep herself from giggling at him.

They were waiting outside during the meeting, because Elena had expressed a minor concern about the safety of Sephiroth viewing some of the data. It was just a precaution - she hadn't exactly been quaking at the knees - but Sephiroth had bowed his head in acknowledgment and calmly glided outside, ducking slightly to pass through the doorway. Aeris had followed him and found him sitting forlornly against the wall, knees drawn up to his chest. He seemed to have perked up a little with the company.

Sephiroth crossed his legs. Thirty seconds later, he uncrossed them again. He restrained himself for a few minutes, then crossed them the other way. Aeris muffled a laugh with her hand and smiled brightly when he gave her a curious glance. "Something the matter?"

His expression told her that he did not appreciate her amusement.

She lay a hand on his arm - he was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt with black jeans today - and continued smiling at him. "Are you nervous about something, Sephiroth?"

"No." The reply was carefully considered. He uncrossed his legs again. Aeris' lips twitched.

"Well, why do you keep twitching, then?"

Sephiroth blinked, eyes darting towards her face and then out into the rain. He shrugged and withdrew his booted feet. Aeris made a small noise of distaste and shifted so that the rapidly forming puddle wouldn't soak her dress. Sephiroth swivelled in a way that looked extremely uncomfortable, but nevertheless removed his wet boots from the area immediately around her. She smiled. "Thankyou."

"You're welcome." He watched the rain for a few moments. Due to his oddly tilted position, his hair soon slithered down over his shoulder. With a light gust of wind, it was blown part-way into Aeris' lap. The swordsman made to move, but Aeris' soft exclamation stopped him.

"It's so soft!" She exclaimed, lifting some of it in her hands. "And very fine, but you have so much of it, that doesn't matter." The green-eyed Cetra fiddled with it for a few moments. Sephiroth had gone very still beside her. "Mine's thick... and it's _wavy_... yours must do exactly what you want it to..." She sighed slightly, then realised that she was petting the hair of - previously - the most dangerous man on the Planet. She retracted her hands and blushed. "Well, that was rude. Sorry about that."

"You're welcome." Sephiroth repeated. Nevertheless, he sat up a little straighter and swept his hair over his right shoulder, away from her. One hand tugged at it thoughtfully. "I'll die with hair in my eyes, I'm sure of it. I should braid it, but if a braid is off-centre, it looks idiotic... and it's difficult to get it centred, myself, when it's this long."

"Oh, I'll do it for you if you like." Aeris volunteered before she could help herself. Somewhere in her head, she then walked to a convenient brick wall and beat her head against it. Sephiroth gave her an odd look. "I mean, I don't want you to die with hair in your eyes." The look got weirder. "Um... I'm going to shut up now, if that's all right with you." She stared straight ahead out into the rain.

From beside her came the sound of fabric shifting. Then, to her very great surprise, Sephiroth started laughing - a full, ringing laugh that shook his shoulders and had to be thoroughly asphyxiated before he could speak again. "And our next topic of conversation shall be hair-ties." He said, suppressing further chuckles and delivering a grin that more or less enveloped the lower half of his face.

Aeris found herself smiling at the thought, and in response to the charming smile on the face of the beautiful swordsman. She couldn't quite take her eyes off him - and her mind was strangely focused on the topic of hair-ties. "Ah... well, actually..."

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow invitingly.

"I _could_ braid your hair, if you'd like. But we'd have to talk about hair-ties, since the only one I own is pink." She gestured to the pink ribbon in her hair. Sephiroth smirked slightly, and flicked back the cuff of his left sleeve to reveal a black elastic band.

"I used this in Nibelheim. Will it do?"

Aeris beamed. "Well, aren't you eager? I'll go get a comb. We can't have hair as lovely as this getting tangled."

Sephiroth's green eyes practically glowed with amusement all the while as he waited for her to return. The murdered was going to braid her murderer's hair. It was laughable... except that the murdered had been Aeris, who had an almost unlimited capacity to forgive, if he understood her character correctly. She returned shortly, ordering him to spin around and face the empty length of the porch. He obeyed.

Aeris collected all of his hair loosely into one hand and started combing it gently, starting with the tips and working her way up. She rarely bothered with this tactic on her own hair, but Sephiroth's was so fine it merited special care. Besides, even though she didn't particularly care if she had split ends or tear-off, Sephiroth might. So, she'd be careful.

Sephiroth had wrapped his arms around his knees. He had been fairly rigid at first, but by the time she had reached the nape of his neck, his head was arched forward, eyes closed. Aeris smiled slightly at this as she ran the comb through the long, silver tresses to free the last of the tangles. "Drop your head back for a moment." He did as she requested, lazy and almost catlike. Aeris separated the hair into three strands. "Okay, when I tell you, tilt your head forward again. You'll have to pull a little to keep the braid taut."

Sephiroth made a small sound of assent. Aeris flipped the right strand over the central strand and said, "Go." Obediently, Sephiroth tilted his head forward. Aeris worked as quickly as she could with the length, aided by the sleekness of the hair. "You are the luckiest man alive. I would kill to have hair like this."

Sephiroth was silent for a time, inclining his neck ever further upon her requests and finally shifting forward several feet so that she could braid the entire length of his hair. Absently, he held out the hair-tie to her, but she smiled and slipped it back over his wrist. "I did a Gongagan knot. Hope you don't mind." Sephiroth shrugged and shook his head, then swept the long braid over his shoulder to examine her handiwork. He almost smiled.

"You're good with long hair." He muttered.

Aeris murmured her thanks at the compliment, but she was worried. What had happened to the laughter? She opened her mouth to ask, but Sephiroth beat her to the punch.

"Aeris... I... I never apologised for..." He trailed off. "I'm so very sorry for killing you." He said morosely, eyes far off. The flower merchant smiled slightly and took his hand in hers, patting it lightly.

"Don't worry about it, Sephiroth. It was far more Jenova than you, anyway. If it wasn't you, it would have been Cloud." She squeezed his hand and delivered a smile that was more cheerful than it should have been. "Everyone wants a piece of the pretty Cetra." She joked. Sephiroth didn't seem convinced. Aeris tucked her fringe behind her ears and sighed slightly. "Okay, I was a little mad to begin with... hence the Lifestream rising to join with Holy. But like I said, it wasn't your fault. None of this was. I'm more inclined to blame our parents than you." She stood up, putting her hands behind her back. "Anyway, I'm hungry. Do you want anything?"

Sephiroth's eyes were a little sad, but he shook his head. "No. 'Bye, flower girl."

Aeris smiled down at him, turned slowly and then paused. "Wait... wait... I've... heard that before. Um. Ummm..." She tapped her temple with a long fingernail and squeezed her eyes shut tightly. "Where was it...?"

* * *

_She shifted slightly on the cold metal floor as they waited for the door to open. Mama had pulled her out of bed, told her to be quiet as a mouse, quiet like the sleeping sea. She'd never seen the sea, but she knew what Mama meant anyway. She ran behind Mama like the rising tide on a windless, moonless night._

_They were almost out of the labs when Mama froze suddenly and pulled Aeris into her arms, crouching protectively over her. Over Mama's shoulder, through her hair, she could see a boy, only a little older than she was, with hair and skin so pale he looked like a ghost._

_"You're trying to get out...?" He inquired in a voice much older than she thought hers would ever be. Mama turned slightly towards him and she nodded once. The boy's eyes saddened. "I'll help you. I have a sword..." He held the too-long weapon out in front of him easily, though it must have weighed about as much as he did. Mama gasped, swung Aeris onto her hip and nodded once._

"_This way...!" The boy took off at a run, sword held out behind him at the ready. He seemed to know exactly where he was going, as though he'd tried all this before..._

* * *

Sephiroth watched with a slightly amused expression as understanding dawned on the pretty Cetra's shoulders. She stiffened and whirled to face him again, staring down incredulously. "It... you..." She sat down again, rather harder than he suspected she'd wanted to. "Oh, Holy..."

Sephiroth waited patiently for her to continue talking. He was, therefore, quite shocked when she flung herself at him and caught him around the neck, squeezing tightly. He half-recoiled before her weight stopped him and her words actually registered in his ears.

"You were the one who helped Mama and I escape from the lab, that day." She whispered, voice choked with tears. "Thankyou. Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou so much. Oh, Sephiroth, I _wish_ you'd come with us onto the train..."

The silver-haired swordsman slowly relaxed into the embrace. "I'd only have gotten you caught, I knew that much. I was their most important specimen. I'd tried it all before." He paused thoughtfully. "I think you were good luck, though - that was the first time I made it as far as the train tracks."

Aeris let go of his neck and pulled back, searching his eyes with her own slightly reddened ones. "I never thought I'd find you. I've prayed for you ever since. Every day." She laughed a little bitterly and the sound didn't suit her. "Some good it did, huh?"

Sephiroth's eyes, so clear and focussed, suddenly went far away. He sat back against the pagoda wall and wrapped his arms around his legs, staring out into the rain again. "You said it yourself - me, or Cloud."

Aeris stared at him for a long time, then leaned forward and pecked him on the cheek. She stood up and dusted off her pink dress before wandering off to fix herself something to eat. Outside, through the rain, Sephiroth closed his eyes and heard her humming.

* * *

By the time Yuffie had finally settled everything that needed settling and signed everything that needed to be signed, the sun was setting and she was too exhausted to even walk straight. She was far too tired to contemplate having to pack up enough clothes and supplies to last her for as long as they would be in wherever Cloud had decided they were going.

She followed her nose into the kitchen and stared. Someone - Tifa, she thought with a wry smile at the neat cursive - had left her a note and a still steaming bowl of noodle soup. She picked up the note and scanned it quickly. Her smile widened into a grin.

_Yuffie,_

_Vincent **rambat sa fneda drec. :) Fa'na muytehk ajanodrehk uhdu dra **Highwind**. E bylgat vun oui, cehla E fyc cina oui't pa denat yvdan dutyo. Ayd ib, drah saad ic yd dra **airshipReno** yht **Aeris** yna fyedehk vun oui uid vnuhd.**_

_**Muja,** Tifa._

Yuffie tucked the note into her pocket and grabbed the bowl of soup, not bothering to pick up the chopsticks. She practically inhaled the meal, having had quite enough with decorum over the course of the day. She washed the bowl carefully, remembering with a grimace the last time she'd forgotten to wash up after herself. She'd had to cut off that section of bench and take it up Da Chao in order to kill the life forms that had sprung from her soggy cereal remnants...

Full, at least a little content and too tired to be worried about the nausea that a ride in the Highwind would cause, she walked to the kitchen door. A fond sort of look drifted over her face and was gone, replaced by an expression of weary determination. She closed the shoji door with a sharp click.

Her bare feet brushed lightly across the wooden floor on her way to the front door, almost in time with the rain between gusts of wind. When she opened the front door, Reno and Aeris were waiting there for her. The flower girl smiled gently and offered Yuffie a bright yellow umbrella. Aeris herself held a forest green one, and Reno was spinning a slim black umbrella around the tip of his finger as though it was his Nightstick. Yuffie took the umbrella and slid on the huge wooden sandals that her people always wore in the rainy season. They made her several inches taller, so that she was nearly on a level with Reno.

He grinned at her and swung his umbrella out into the rain, popping it open. He walked ahead of her all the way to the airship, and Aeris walked just a little behind her. Yuffie knew it was a mark of respect that none should walk on a level with her, but it made her feel just a little alone... and a little annoyed, that Reno was walking ahead of her, when it was a mark of her own strength to leave the village by herself. He hadn't followed any other Wutaian conventions, however, so she shrugged and let him be - there was no reason for the villagers to suspect that anything Reno did held any significance.

Her advisers waited for her at the edge of the village, dressed all in dark grey. Yuffie wondered if they'd done it to match her on purpose, or if some other force had dressed them all in this miserable shade. She smiled at them, nodded to them, but did not turn her head to any of them as she walked directly between them out of the village.

As she stepped carefully from her sandals onto the lowest rung of the Highwind's rope ladder, she crouched to scoop the shoes out of the mud, attached them calmly to the heavy obi around her middle. She ascended slowly at first. Halfway up the ladder, she got frustrated and looped her arm through the ladder to hitch her kimono up to a less cumbersome height. Apologising in her mind to Aeris in case the flower girl was getting an eyeful, she hauled herself onto the deck without Cid's help and shot Reno a dirty look when he smirked at her. She was soaking wet, kimono clinging to her body like a second skin. When the smirk didn't cease, she stormed over to him and punched him in the arm.

"Hey!" He protested. "Come on, what am I supposed to-OW!"

"Two for flinching." She told him grimly, shaking out her hand after her second blow. Aeris, who had just gained the deck, giggled at Reno's injured expression and sauntered past the Turk with a smirk of her own. Reno made a whining sound in the back of his throat before following the women inside. Cid rolled his eyes and rolled up the ladder before retreating to the bridge.

* * *

When Yuffie didn't ascend to the bridge, not even to ask where they were going, Vincent quietly abandoned his usual post and slipped past Red XIII on his way to the deck. The red cloak did not swirl about his legs as it usually did; the material was still damp from the rain. His boots, too, were encrusted with slowly drying mud, making it a little more difficult to find purchase on the smooth metal of the walkway.

Red eyes narrowed as he crossed the walkway and then widened slightly to discover that the girl had already taken up her 'reserved seat' above the engine room. She sat disconsolately with her eyes closed, head resting against the wall. She was thoroughly drenched, dark hair turned midnight black with the weight of the water. Vincent wondered if she was asleep already. He knew that the day had been hard for her.

His question was answered as he moved closer. Yuffie's eyes flickered open and she watched his approach with a blank expression. When he raised an eyebrow in curiosity, she summoned the vaguest of smiles. "Hey, Vinnie..."

"Hello, Yuffie. Are you ill?"

She shook her head. "Not yet. Too cold to be throwing up." The words were simple, falling lazily from her lips and drifting to his ears, sweet and rich despite her exhaustion. He crinkled his eyes at her and she returned the expression. She patted the steel beside her. "I'll warn you if I start to feel sick."

Vincent didn't think this was entirely reassuring, but he shuffled carefully until he had his back against the wall beside her. Yuffie closed the few inches between them, huddling her face and shoulders against his arm above the gauntlet, even daring to wrap her pale fingers about the claw itself. Vincent was surprised. "I'm tired..." Yuffie admitted, words slurred with a yawn.

Vincent weighed his options for several moments, then slouched a little, leaning imperceptibly into the warmth of the ninja. "Then sleep." He suggested lowly. "I'll wake you when we get there."

Yuffie made a soft murmur of assent. A pucker appeared in her brow. "...where are we going?"

Vincent was silent for a few moments. Then, "To Midgar."

Yuffie didn't reply. She was already asleep.

* * *

A/N: Aaaaagh! My _Hellsing_ V3 has a massive crease on pages 35 and 36. TT Nooooooooooo! It goes right through Pip's _head_. weeps

...but gods, Enrico looks good on page 82. 3

Ahem. Next chapter, we return to Midgar for a spot of lab hunting. Please review!


	21. Deep

Disclaimer: I do not own anyone or anything from FFVII. I do own Lana, Feather, the Imbued and the rest of this storyline.

A/N: Whew, this is getting to be pretty long... and it'll probably get up around the forty-chapter mark. Anyway, this chapter the ever-growing gang, which should by all rights now be referred to as a clan, pay a visit to the ruins of the Shinra Bldg. I realise I may have taken quite a few liberties with Vincent's acrobatic ability... but hell, I think he's spiffy, and if anyone who's been asleep for thirty years can perform a perfect backwards somersault onto the _lip of a coffin_, then they can damn well do wall-jumps in the dark. has been playing too much Super Mario 64 lately

Oh, and this was going to be posted early in honour of Vincent's birthday, but FFNet was down. So, Happy Birthday to Vincent for Wednesday.

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter 21: Threat

Technically, they arrived _at_ Midgar at about two in the morning, having made a brief detour to Kalm to pick up Aeris' staff from where it hung in remembrance on Cloud and Tifa's wall. They actually left the Highwind and went _into_ Midgar about seven hours later, Tifa having insisted that (threatened bodily harm upon until) Cid take a nap for a while. The rest of AVALANCHE, a few of which had woken up once the Highwind rattled to a standstill, grumbled lightly and went back to sleep. No one appeared to have noticed that in a corner of the cargo hold, Yuffie was fast asleep, having captured Vincent's left arm for use as a pillow. The red-cloaked man was, alternately, dozing with his chin on his chest and staring peacefully across the grating at the foot of the stairs that lead to the bridge. At some stage, his right hand had migrated across both his knees to rest lightly upon Yuffie's arm as she slept. He didn't actually notice this until Barret bustled past them, directing a slightly bewildered look at the gunman. At which point he'd looked down, promptly snatched it back across his knees and put it in his pocket. Traitorous hand.

_Traitorous mind,_ Chaos rumbled in disagreeable amusement. Vincent scowled and took out his annoyance on Yuffie's arm, worrying at it until she groaned and opened her eyes. "Whtmzit?"

Vincent, for all his linguistics capabilities, could not for the life of him work out what _that_ had been. He stared at her in puzzlement until she scowled and repeated, more clearly, "What time is it?" He held up his watch arm and she squinted at it. When she had persuaded her mind to interpret the softly glowing digital display, she frowned. "Aren't we there yet?"

"We've been here for five or so hours. Tifa wanted Cid to rest before we left."

"Mmm. I guess autopilot's no good in a storm like this, huh?" She came to the realisation that she was using Vincent as a pillow and sat suddenly bolt upright. "Uh... heh heh... sorry, Vinnie. Using you as a pillow, there." She rubbed a hand over hair sleepily, looking sheepish. Vincent shrugged. He hadn't minded. Except for his damn hand doing whatever it pleased while he slept. He directed a subtle glare at the thing.

Yuffie stretched like a cat and sprang to her feet. "Better get my grumpy face on, or they'll think you fed me sugar intra-thing-ily in my sleep again. What is that word?" She added, frowning.

"Intravenously." Vincent supplied, rocking to his feet in the same manner. Yuffie continued to frown.

"Mmm. That's the one." _Weird how when Vincent wakes me up I don't bite his head off._ She felt a teensy shiver run down her spine at the thought. _Then again, maybe it's my self-preservation instincts._ 'Cause hey, she could take anyone else with her hands tied behind her back! She grinned at her own thoughts and stretched again. "Well, let's get going. Cid doesn't need _that_ much sleep. I heard you didn't need much sleep when you're old." She turned around and poked her tongue out at Vincent. "You must be the exception to the rule, Vinnie."

Vincent blinked owlishly at her. She shrugged and started across the grating that lead to the bridge. "'Course, ya don't _look_ old. But you don't sleep much any more... hey, were you actually sleeping back there?" A hesitant nod. Yuffie beamed. "Cool." She flounced off ahead of him.

Vincent wondered whether his traitorous right hand had indeed fed the girl sugar intravenously. She was certainly perky this morning. Still, he supposed, it could only be a good thing, since the day would most likely be long and unrewarding. He sighed softly as he ascended the stairs to the bridge.

Yuffie had bounced over to Feather and Red and was chatting amiably to the pair of them. Red looked a little surprised; Feather just looked a little bewildered. Vincent turned, caught a discreet beckoning motion from Cid and crossed the bridge with small clanking sounds. Cid grinned at his friend, cigarette protruding from his teeth. "How you doing, Vince? Get any sleep last night? If you didn't, don't tell Tifa, or we'll be stuck here for another six hours." Vincent raised an unseen eyebrow at this until he felt a dark glare on the back of his neck. Barret snorted.

"Oh, he got a lotta sleep," the black man said lowly. "Next to the brat in the cargo hold." Cid breathed smoke out through his nostrils, looking surprised. He glanced at Vincent, whose eyes had narrowed slightly. "You better watch yerself, Vince."

"Excuse me?" The reply was startled out of the cloaked man. He eyed Barret in obvious puzzlement. Barret glared.

"You heard me. Watch it, 'cuz if you hurt the brat, I'm gonna hafta get medieval on yo' ass." He said in a menacing rumble, and stomped off across the bridge to talk to Cloud. Vincent was left standing next to Cid with a slightly poleaxed expression. Cid chuckled, punching numbers into the control panel in front of him.

"Sleeping with the brat, eh, Vince?"

"She's not a brat." Vincent replied automatically. Then he registered what Cid had said. "No. _No_. What do you think I am?" His voice had risen dangerously. Cid glanced at the man, frank blue eyes narrowing a little.

"I think you're a great guy behind that blank mug of yours," He said. "And I think you'd better stop leaning on my control panel, or _I'm_ gonna get medieval on your ass. With the Venus Gospel." Vincent's eyes narrowed and he stormed across the room to resume his usual position on the bridge. A typical Cid response; the pilot didn't seem to understand the effect of his taunts. Vincent glared across the bridge at Barret. What was he thinking? Of course he was willing to lend Yuffie the use of his shoulder as a pillow - he'd do the same for any of the...

He paused, crimson eyes widening slightly. No. No, he wouldn't.

_Traitorous mind_, Chaos reaffirmed with a dark chuckle.

* * *

An hour later, the large group had entered the slums through a destroyed wall in the eastern sectors. While the rubble was less troublesome, Reeve led the party, pointing out where Shinra buildings had been. They combed the ruins of Sectors One and Two and found absolutely nothing worthwhile. It was getting late when they decided it was about time to call it quits.

Cloud, tired and frustrated - the amount of times he'd stubbed his toes today assured him he was not meant to be a slum-dweller - called them together. "If we leave now we might have a bit of light when we get back to the Highwind." One callused hand was wrapped around the blade of his sword - monsters were still plentiful in the uninhabited Sectors, for all the battallions that Reeve had set up around the settlements.

Yuffie made a noise of protest. "We can so do Sector Three today! Come on, Cloud..." The spiky-haired leader of AVALANCHE shook his head firmly.

"Better thorough than fast, Yuffie." He said apologetically. Yuffie nodded wearily. Her hyper mood had worn off about an hour into the search, and now she was just frustrated. The monsters around here weren't even strong enough for her to let out her agression properly.

Simultaneously, Lana waved her hand to get Cloud's attention and Reno said, "Hey, Strife." They glanced at each other, then Reno shrugged at Lana. "Ladies first." He received an odd look from Rude. "What? Fuck it, I'll go first then - there's a place I know not far from here and we can stay there instead of haulin' our asses back to the Highwind. Happy now, oh loyal partner?" Rude shrugged. Lana looked intrigued.

"Are you talking about buttons and blows?" She asked, much to the bewilderment of AVALANCHE at large. Reno paused and stared at her, coppery eyebrows rising as a grin formed.

"Holy shit." He said, glee glinting in his green eyes. "A fellow tailor."

"Seamstress, thankyou." Lana glared. Reno held up his hands.

"My bad, forgot about that."

Yuffie, Tifa and Reeve said, "Huh?"

Reno grinned and turned to them a little sheepishly. "It's sorta a faction of slum pickpockets, gang members and prostitutes. You look out for tailors - and seamstresses - and they look out for you. Buttons and blows." He chuckled. "Small fuckin' world, isn't it? If I'd been a girl, I coulda been Rufus Shinra's girlfriend, laughing it up at all those fancy parties."

There was a small silence as the people surrounding him tried not to laugh, and as Reno recognised what he'd said. Reno said, "Shut-up-shut-up-shut-up," in an uncharacteristically small voice. "That came out wrong."

"Sure it did." Cait Sith snickered. "Lead the way, oh Queen of the Slums."

* * *

The best way to get to buttons and blows, according to both Reno and Lana, was to go to the very base of Shinra Tower in the remaining light and actually start the journey in the darkness. Needless to say, Cloud wasn't particularly happy with this arrangement, but 'following a well-trodden path in the slums in the dark' won out over 'walking in a completely unknown part of the slums in the dark' pretty easily.

They were still about a hundred metres away from the base of the building when Red's hackles rose all of a sudden and he started growling. Tifa braced herself for a monster attack, but when nothing emerged from the gathering darkness she tossed a puzzled look towards the lion-like creature. "What's wrong, Red?"

Red shook out his mane, upper lip curled back over his teeth, and took a few cautious steps towards Reno and Lana, who were still leading the group. Slowly he said, "I can _smell_ something." Tifa stroked the fur between his shoulders soothingly, but it didn't seem to want to lie down. She looked to Cloud, burgundy eyes concerned.

Red said, very quietly, "I think it's the specimen elevator."

That got Cloud's attention, as well as a sharp look from Sephiroth. "It's still operating?" Reeve started to shake his head. Red lowered his head slightly, squinting into the darkened ruins of the Shinra Tower. His lamp-like tail flame flared briefly.

"It isn't. But there is _something_ in there."

Reeve froze and stared at the feline, amber eyes suddenly lit with nervousness. "Should we check it out?" His voice belied his calm appearance with the slightest of quavers. Cloud's luminous blue eyes narrowed.

Reno came jogging back. "Yo, guys, what's the hold up?"

"Nanaki smells the Death." Feather whispered to him, one hand snaking out to brush Reeve's arm. Her knives were strapped to her forearms and she brushed her fingertips over them as though to reassure herself of their presence. Reeve reached back almost absently and smoothed his hand over her slim, bony fingers. Reno pursed his lips at this rather bizarre pronouncement and glanced at Cloud.

"Red smells something. We should check it out."

He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled loud enough that Lana and those near the front of the group turned back, and Barret and Cid (who were dutifully bringing up the rear) got a wriggle on. By the time they assembled, Red was no longer snarling at shadows, but he didn't look happy. Both Aeris and Tifa stood beside him, each of them resting a comforting and protective hand on his mane or his shoulder. It was something he normally railed against - he hated being treated as though he was merely an animal when he was plainly as intelligent (and in some cases, moreso) than they were - but now he seemed to appreciate the contact. It was an animal contact, a reassurance, almost a promise to protect and guard and aid.

Red moved his head ever so slightly toward Tifa's hand and tried to look completely dignified while she scratched his ears.

Cloud explained, very briefly. Lana took her rifle off her shoulder, traced her fingers down the butt with a slight smile, and turned to face Red with a nod of approval and acceptance that it was no longer possible for her to lead the way. Red padded softly out from the circle of his comrades and sniffed the air thoughtfully. "Follow me."

They continued towards the base of the Shinra building, following the concrete and steel construction until Red found a point sufficiently obliterated as to allow the entire group access to the bowels of the tower. He crouched briefly and bounded to the top of the rubble heaped outside the opening, peering inside cautiously. His tail flicked once. "It's definitely inside, but it's very dark and the footing doesn't look great. Some of you should wait out here."

Cloud looked about him for a few seconds, lips forming a straight line. "Vincent. Reno. Yuffie." He said grudgingly. "I'd take more, but we're only going to be quick and I'd rather leave someone who can still get to buttons and blows." He nodded apologetically at Lana, who pouted and shouldered her rifle a little sulkily. Tifa put her gloved fists together before her and then stretched.

"Don't worry about us, Cloud. Just be careful in there. This place isn't exactly stable." She cast a dubious eye at the towering wreckage of the once-proud skyscraper. Cloud gifted her with a smile, which Aeris echoed without rancour, green eyes crinkling at their corners. She clasped her hands about her Princess Guard, trying not to let a giggle escape despite the serious situation.

Yuffie ruined that plan by scrambling up the rock heap. "Last one inside has to give me a materia!"

Reno and Cloud looked at each other before running towards the rock pile. Vincent walked behind them somewhat more sedately, hoping in his heart of hearts that Yuffie was only joking. She tended to be awfully picky, and he was not willing to give up carefully honed Summons just because he hadn't flung himself into probable danger in the darkness.

She probably wasn't, but it was too late to start running now.

Inside, the footing was about as rough as Red had said it would be, and made worse by the darkness. Yuffie nearly pitched headfirst onto who-knew-what three times before she decided to just follow in the sphere of light thoughtfully provided by Red's flaming tail. It wasn't going to go out any time soon, so she wasn't worried about ruining her vision. As long as she didn't look directly at the flame, she was peachy-keen.

She stubbed her toe on some random piece of shrapnel and chomped heartily on her cheek in an effort not to swear. Then she remembered that it was just Cloud, Reno, Red and Vincent, and her father wasn't about to tell her off about her foul mouth.

She didn't really feel like swearing after that.

"Are we getting warm?" Reno queried after a while. Red shrugged nervously, his hackles raised once more.

"It's hard to say. I don't think it's coming from this level, but... it's over there." He gestured with his paw to a larger area of blackness over to their right, nearer to Vincent than to any of them. The red-cloaked man strode coolly into the darkness, completely out of the reach of the light of Red's tail. There was silence for a few tense minutes. Tentatively, Yuffie took a few steps forward.

"Hey, Vinnie, you find anything?"

A slight snort from further away than she'd expected. Another longish pause and Vincent's burning crimson eyes reappeared, startling them all. He stopped where he was, composedly saying, "I think it's the lift shaft. There seems to be a slight draft..."

Red tilted his head curiously and loped off through the darkness, leaving Yuffie behind. She made a small groaning sound and followed vainly after the flame, losing it in a few seconds. She squinted for a few seconds and made out a slight variation in the darkness. She walked straight for it, and in a few seconds turned a corner to find Vincent and Red staring gravely down a rather large hole that had once been a small lift shaft.

"How far does it go down?" She asked as she approached. Vincent crouched.

"Perhaps twenty, thirty feet. It is difficult to tell from here." So saying, he stepped calmly off the edge and fell in a rush of wind and swirling scarlet into the darkness. Yuffie made a startled sound and crouched beside the shattered wall that had once surrounded the shaft as his boots clanged on something hollow and metal.

"Vinnie...?" She called hesitantly. To her relief, two burning points of red appeared in the darkness below.

"Closer to thirty feet. I think I found the lift." He replied, blandly. Yuffie smiled a little at that. Cloud and Reno peered over her shoulders. The points of red light flickered as Vincent blinked. "There is a passage. The edge of the lift has sunk slightly below it." Cloud looked to Red, who nodded.

"The smell comes from here."

Cloud considered for a moment. "Can you see anything of the passage, Vincent?"

"...no."

Red peered tentatively over the edge. "Stand to one side; I'm coming down." So saying, he pushed off and landed somewhat more quietly than Vincent had. Now they could see that Vincent and Red stood on the top of a rather battered elevator cage. A long, thick black cable trailed all over its surface. Red dipped his head to the top foot of the passage visible in the southern wall. His tail twitched.

"Nothing in it. It's longer than I can see."

Cloud seemed to come to a decision, then. "Right, well, come on up out of there and we'll investigate tomorrow. There's not enough space down there for even Yuffie to get through, so we'll have to get in through the elevator." Red issued a nod, jerked his head to the side to gesture them out of the way, and then leaped back to the top with relative ease, scrabbling only slightly. Reno peered over the edge and smirked a little.

"Y'need a hand down there, Valentine?" He asked in amusement. There was an irritated flare to the red pinpoints below him, and then Vincent's voice rang up out of the elevator shaft, irritation and dislike plain in his tone.

"Stand back."

The ferocity in his voice made Reno obey without question. There was a flurry of movement from below and then a series of muted clangs as Vincent performed a swift and astonishing series of wall-jumps. He only just made it high enough to gain ground level, but just as Yuffie was sure he was about to crash into the edge and be forced to scramble for leverage, he twisted in mid air and, slamming his claw into the ground at the edge of the hole and performing a curious sort of flip and twirl, which left him crouched by the edge of the elevator shaft. Yuffie and Reno both made small "oooh" sounds. Vincent tugged his claw sharply out of the rock he'd slammed it into and cocked his head at Reno, the barest of smirks crossing his pale lips.

"When I need 'a hand', I will ask for it."

Vincent Valentine never sauntered, but on the way out of the Shinra building it was a close thing.

* * *

Reeve was getting edgy, outside in the darkness. Feather had noticed, and was gently stroking his arm, even though she was beginning to be worried in the darkness, herself. Rude had noticed, and was attempting to show despite his cool exterior that there was nothing to worry about with two of the three Turks around – and there would have been nothing to worry about if there'd only been one of them, either. Elena had noticed, and was glaring out at the darkness with a general expression of "If you touch my boss again, you sons of bitches, I will rip out your spleen. Yar!". Lana had noticed, and was calmly eyeing the world down the barrel of her rifle, magenta eyes piercing through the ghostly remains of daylight. Cait Sith was completely oblivious, and was amusing Aeris by juggling chunks of metal.

Sephiroth was holding the Masamune at the ready, but he didn't appear overly worried by either the darkness or the twitchiness of the President of Neo-Shinra. He examined the blade thoughtfully, as though the folded steel would reveal some sort of secret to him.

Barret was actually beginning to trust the silver-haired bastard a little bit. Aeris seemed to have taken to him, anyway. If the kid could forgive and trust the man that had stabbed her... well, his first thought was that the kid was a few picks short of a coalmine. He knew Aeris better than that, though. She had reasons for what she did, and when she trusted somebody it certainly wasn't in vain.

There was a slight change in the darkness inside the gaping absence of wall in the Shinra building. Barret nudged Cid. "They're back."

They were indeed back, and Vincent was in front this time. This was odd in itself – the quiet man rarely took the lead unless he had to. Unless something had happened to Cloud... but no, the blond man was but a few steps behind Vincent, followed by Yuffie and Red, with Reno bringing up the rear. The Turk looked a little put out about something. Tifa waved to them, relief plain on her face.

"Hey! How'd it go? Did you find anything?"

Vincent merely gave her an enigmatic little lift of his lips she supposed had been intended as a smile, and walked calmly to the edge of the group, out of the spotlight once more. Cloud was a little more informative.

"Vincent found the remains of the specimen elevator. It leads to an underground passage, but we can't get in. We decided to wait until tomorrow." Yuffie snorted and Cloud sighed slightly. "All right, _I_ decided to wait 'til tomorrow." He amended wearily. "Can we get going to this buttons and blows place? I'm kinda tired."

Lana rolled her eyes and beckoned Reno up the front. She put one hand on her hip and pointed her rifle with the other into the night. "I've been looking around. It looks like the first sign is gone—"

Reno looked puzzled. "Whaddaya mean? It's right there." He pointed in a completely different direction, leaving Lana puzzled. Reno seemed to be pointing at a green squiggle sprayed onto a pylon, but the sign she was looking for was a red spool...

"Were there different signs for tailors?" She wondered aloud. Reno shrugged.

"Probably. You know how the fat guy was. Anyway, I spent so much time there I can probably find it without half the signs." He winked at her, then called out, "Oi, let's get a move on, here. Strife needs his fuckin' beauty sleep after all." Cloud shot him a playful glare and mimed shooting Reno with his hand. The Turk grinned and started a startlingly brisk, gangling walk towards what would hopefully prove to be buttons and blows.

* * *

A/N: That's it for this chapter, folks. Please review and let me know what you think.

A big _huge_ thankyou directed at **Emri**. It was really cool to go through your thoughts on the chapters one at a time. (And really cool to visit my profile one day only to discover that I had about fifteen more reviews than I had the day before. ) Also, I tend to write the Al Bhed off the top of my head, but since I've not been writing in it very much lately, I've started slipping. I'll go through and re-upload the chapters with mistakes in them when I have the time. Until then, the English Al Bhed/Wutaian alphabet translations are below.

A Y N H

B P O U

C L P B

D T Q X

E A R N

F V S C

G K T D

H R U I

I E V J

J Z W F

K G X Z

L M Y O

M S Z Q

Also, you _are _a clever cookie, Emri. The letter allocations in the tanks do stand for materia class allocations, but since you'll find out all about that in the next few chapters... I see no reason to divulge information here!


	22. Embroidery

Disclaimer: I do not own anyone or anything from Final Fantasy VII. I do own Reno's past, including but not limited to Lynette, Thor, Seanie, Jules, Buka, Toby, Cub and Kisa. I wish I owned this new Vincent who's appearing in Dirge of Cerberus, though, 'cuz wowee…!

A/N: Well, I was going to post a summary this chapter, but then I got confused when I tried to write it and the level of detail varied greatly so I decided I'd just give up. This chapter is mostly made up of random fragments, which nevertheless are quite substantial to the plot. Go figure. Review responses at the end of the chapter.

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter 22: Embroidery

As it turned out, Reno had been greatly underestimated. He could, indeed, find buttons and blows without any signs. Cloud hadn't seen any more of the green tailor signs, or the magenta seamstress signs, but Reno was certainly following _something_. Cloud had spent his fair share of time in the slums, but the red haired Turk seemed to almost sense out the right route, like the street and piles of discarded junk under his feet were sending him messages through the soles of his scuffed-up dress shoes. Lana seemed to be similarly impressed with the Turk, looking all around her in puzzlement every time Reno decided on a new direction to take as though he had to be following something they could see.

At last Reno's monkey-like progress through the rubble came to a halt and he turned back to face the trailing group with a bare glimmer of teeth in the moonless night and the glow of his mako-enhanced green eyes. "We're here."

Lana was the first person beside him, glaring all around suspiciously. Then she made a soft sound and smiled. "So we are…" She put a hand on her hip and tossed her hair behind her shoulder. "All right, I'm impressed." Reno's grin widened a little, impishly, but he remained silent until the group had gathered around him. Barret grunted.

"Don't see nothin'…" he muttered, almost anxiously. It was instinct, in the slums after dark, even though Midgar really had improved after Meteor's near miss.

"You're not supposed to." Reno replied with a shrug. "Follow me."

Lana practically followed in his footsteps as he descended the slope of twisted metal and broken concrete. She put up her rifle when she hit level ground. Reno slipped into the shadow of an oversized wheel with a steel pipe protruding from one of the holes in the hub-cap and kicked at an old washing machine a couple of times. There was a long period of silence and then a slit of light appeared in the deep shadows underneath a half-destroyed concrete awning.

"Hems or heels?" A gravelly voice demanded in a tone of slight surprise. Reno shook his head with a little sigh and Lana took it upon herself to reply.

"Both, and a little extra fabric." She said. Then she glanced back at the group and said, "Sixteen rolls total." The voice behind the door let out a rasping chuckle and the slit of light disappeared. AVALANCHE was near blinded as light exploded from behind a previously closed door.

"Sixteen rolls? That'd cost ya anywhere else." The voice was still coming from behind the door, which had swung away inwards. "Don't just stand there."

Reno strolled inside, adjusting his sunglasses and sidestepped around behind the door to grin at a fat old man with salt-and-pepper hair and a moustache that probably should have been given beard status. His tired grey-green eyes grew slowly larger and larger as Lana, followed by fourteen people he had never seen before, except on TV, filed into the relatively small but very well lit front room. Reno's eyes were dancing green flames. "Cat gotcha tongue, Tone?"

A blink. "Scar. Rosie." Tone directed a quick nod at Reno, then Lana, and resumed staring at the people behind them. "Uh… it's been a while, but there's no one here 'cept me and the old girl, so we can fitcha all in. Come on downstairs."

He trundled off in front of them, leaving Reno and Lana to herd their 'extra rolls' after him. The group was strangely silent. Most of them had never actually been in this situation before. Rude was taking careful stock of everything around him. Sephiroth's sword hand was being firmly clenched by the other in an attempt to stop it inching toward the Masamune. Vincent was trying to pretend that he'd never been to any such underground organisation, no sir'ee. Yuffie and Elena seemed to be watching for Don Corneos.

Aeris tagged Lana by the hand. "What exactly is this place?" She asked, green eyes wide and curious. The more muscular woman smiled at her.

"We'll get to that. Just keep moving. Once we're downstairs, Reno and I'll explain." Aeris stared hard at Lana for a moment before nodding and moving to intercept Sephiroth and take one of his hands with a slight puff of laughter and a roll of her brilliant eyes. The swordsman's vigilance was total, Lana noted with a frown. It was a shame that such a beautiful man had to go through so much torment. She thought of Rufus and her eyes dulled a little. He'd been beautiful, as well.

Reno, flicking a hand at Cait Sith to get him to follow the rest, grabbed her arm and turned her towards him, peering at her suspiciously in the dim staircase with eyes like small green lanterns. "Hey, what's the matter with you?" She stared at him blankly and tried to keep the sadness from her face. Reno pursed his lips and snorted through his nose. "Don't give me that shit. Talk to people when you're down. It makes you feel better." He let her go and continued down the stairs ahead of her.

Lana found herself surprised by his perceptiveness. She trailed him down the stairs, remembering to skip the broken one, and emerged into what much resembled an extremely short underground warehouse. The ceiling was only about two and a half meters from the floor, something that the taller members of the group were looking somewhat put out about. There were thirty single beds laid out along the length of the warehouse, most of them quite old. On the other side of the expansive room stood a number of trestle tables and benches, set up to line the room like the beds did: in two rows of fifteen. The actual furniture was quite similar, but the beds were dressed in varying shades and patterns. Lana strode over to the bed that Aeris had been eyeing and sat down on the floral comforter with a soft smile.

"Sorry, flower girl, this one is mine. Seamstresses and tailors have beds assigned." She said with a slight smirk. "You'll have to go for green or yellow or something…"

"Shotgun yellow!" Yuffie said quickly. Aeris turned around with her hands on her hips and made puppy eyes at the ninja, who poked out her tongue and pulled down her eyelid. The flower merchant crossed her arms and sulked. Tifa smiled and laid a hand on her arm.

"Don't worry, Aeris… look, there's a pink right over there next to the Chocobo and Moogle print quilt…"

Barret, Cid and Cloud edged away from the bed with the Chocobo and Moogle print quilt with identical grimaces of disgust. Reno snickered. "Oh no, that one's Rude's. I _insist_." Rude shot Reno a look he certainly wouldn't have directed at his mother and stalked over to fling himself down on the darker of the blue beds. Reno shrugged. "Anyway, the red one's mine."

Cloud frowned. "How come? Tone called you 'Scar'."

Reno formed each hand into a child's handgun and gestured to his cheeks. "You thought it was for these, right? It's actually short for Scarlet – I'm red, y'know, but after I started workin' for Shinra I didn't exactly wanna go under Scarlet, now, did I?" Cloud suppressed a chuckle as Reno sighed. "Anyway, take your pick of the rest of the beds – Tone's room is right down the end next to the bathroom. There are six showers, but some of 'em don't work too good."

"They work just fine," Tone grumped with a withering look. "If you're gonna come in here with a whole buncha rags, don't think you can knock the service, _Scarlet_." He offered a small wink to the company, mostly Tifa. "No offence intended, folks. Y'all can shower or do whatever you want. Food'll be done in a half-hour or so. 'Til then, make yerselves comfortable."

- - - - - - - - - -

An hour later, most everyone had shuffled off to shower and back from the showers and even fallen asleep for a little while, but the food wasn't done. Yuffie was beginning to suspect Tone had lied in the way all chefs and waitresses lie – just _five_ more minutes, sir, and you'll be enjoying your meal, we _promise_. Pfft. Well, Tone couldn't pull that one on Yuffie Kisaragi.

There was a loud sound like a buggy door being opened into a spiky steel pole and a loud groan of effort from the other end of the hall. Then Tone backed a little way from the furthest trestle table and the immense copper pot that was now sitting on it and said, between coughs, "Dinner's up."

Okay, well maybe he _could_ pull that one on Yuffie Kisaragi. It was about time; she'd been getting pretty hungry and she hadn't had a shower yet. The one thing no one wanted to deal with was a tired, dirty _and_ hungry Yuffie Kisaragi. She scrambled for the pot of stew, heartily believing that she needed food, a thorough shower and bed – precisely in that order, with as little time between the three as possible. Sometimes the irrepressible ramble of thoughts through her mind was enough to perturb even her.

Tifa made it there first and started dishing it out with a kind smile and a twinkle in her gorgeous burgundy eyes. Her hair hung in a think wet rope to her mid-calves, bound and twisted carefully into a plait as thick as Yuffie's wrists. Yuffie held out said wrists, attached as they were to her thin, bony hands and the biggest, deepest bowl she'd seen set out on the table. Tifa laughed and told her that her eyes were too big for her stomach, but she filled it up anyway.

The stew was thick and meaty and it tasted like just about every single vegetable, every single meat, she could think of. She got about halfway through the bowl and paused to stifle a burp, recalled the company she was with, and reshaped her mouth and throat to let it echo as loud and long as she could make it. Most of her friends looked disgusted. Cait Sith and Reno both whooped and applauded. She flashed them the peace sign and went back to her Gargantuan bowl of soup, defying Tifa's assessment of the meal and eating every last spoonful.

Then, of course, she flopped back onto the yellow bed she had shotgunned earlier, trying to disguise that her stomach was, in fact, much smaller than her eyes.

Sitting at the table chatting with Reeve, Feather and Elena, Tifa glanced at the ninja and tried not to smile. She shared the expression with Reeve and they both had to stifle laugher. Elena blinked and said, "What's so funny?"

Yuffie, hearing this, bounced to her feet and cheerfully announced that she was going to have a shower. Retrieving the blindingly yellow towel from the foot of her bed, she practically skipped to the end of the great hall, shut herself in a shower stall and promptly slid to the floor to emit a gurgling moan.

"I'm gonna be _sick_…"

- - - - - - - - - -

"So, how's things?" Reno asked, lighting a cigarette. Tone shrugged at him wearily.

"Well, you two're all I've seen for a while, 'cept Button. Reeve did try t' 'vacuate the slums, but y' can't move people who don't care if they live or die." He cleared his throat uncomfortably. "We lost a lotta good needleworkers. Kept the beds, though. Good thing we did."

Lana sighed softly. "I know Cyan went down. Found her, a few weeks after the… the impact." Her voice was strangely subdued. "Who else?" Reno scowled.

"Hey, hey, can we not talk about this? Jesus, you don't come in here to hear bad news. You come here to keep it all _away._" He took a long, angry drag on his cancer stick and glared at Lana with bright chips of malachite. "Just 'cause you're down in the mud about blondie doesn't mean you gotta—"

"What do you know about it?" Lana demanded. "When was the last time someone _you_ cared about died because you weren't there to protect them, huh?"

"Five years ago."

There was silence. Tone looked away. Reno inhaled a slow lungful of smoke and blew it at the ceiling. Lana stared at him, her mouth half open.

"…what?"

He grinned at her, only this was the sort of grin that bit back far more than five years of pain, of grief, of loneliness. This was a coping grin. "It was five years ago, I said. Y'see, my family lived under the Sector 1 reactor, and when it went ka-blooie, so did they. Sean, Julia, Toby, Cub and Kisa. Kisa was six."

Lana's magenta eyes grew slowly wider, her eyebrows slanting in sudden unhappiness. She couldn't seem to speak.

"Buka was my little brother. He died of mako poisoning 'bout eighteen months before that. Six months before Buka, my big brother Tori died 'cause he missed 'Net too much – Lynette was my big sister, she died a year and a bit before Thor. And my ma before that, and pop before her. Not countin' the street alliances. This is strictly family, you understand." Again, the sickly grin.

"You asshole," Lana breathed. "How the fuck do you do this? How are you not dead in a gutter somewhere?"

Reno's face became deadly serious. "Ma tried. She really tried. She wasn't good at it without pops, but she did her best. 'Net was the most wonderful person I've ever met. Thor was a fuckin' _idiot_, but even when he was drunk off his ass and cryin' so hard it hurt your _ears_, he was trying to make things better." Unshed tears glimmered in Reno's eyes. He resettled the sunglasses atop his head and stubbed out his cigarette directly onto the tabletop. Tone made no sound of protest. "They need to be remembered, not cried over. And I'm the only person who remembers them. So… I gotta keep going. At least 'til there's someone who'll remember _me_."

- - - - - - - - - -

Reeve was smug in his possession of the polka dotted bed. It was not a pastel colour; it was not a girly pattern. It even kinda suited his personality a little bit. He had been fed and watered, and he'd had a surprisingly hot shower and washed his hair for the first time in… he made a face. _My techie hygiene is catching up with me again._ Prior to becoming a Shinra employee, Reeve had generally found his work more captivating than eating healthily and showering regularly. At least the company had helped him get straightened out in that respect. He grinned slightly to himself and stretched out, gripping the top of the bed with his hands and curling his abnormally long toes a little around the bar that ran along the bed's foot.

Most of AVALANCHE still sat at the trestle table, either talking idly or still picking at the remains of the stew. Reno and Lana had spoken animatedly with Tone for some time before all three returned to the upstairs room to await the arrival of someone called Button. Reeve had no idea who that might be, but he didn't really care. So long as he got a good night's sleep, he didn't think he'd mind sharing the hall with Palmer and Heideggar.

All right, he definitely took _that_ thought back.

He rolled his head to the side as a high-pitched female laugh emanated from the stairwell, raising an eyebrow as Reno emerged chuckling. That certainly hadn't been _his_ laugh. Reeve sat up and ran a hand through his hair, glancing across to the table, where conversation had stalled.

Out of the stairwell had come a tall, leggy blonde. She was stunning, though she must have been fifty. Most of her hair was piled elaborately atop her head, the rest of it trailing in golden squiggles down either side of her face and between her shoulder blades. One of her hands had captured Tone's so tightly she almost appeared to be dragging him out into the hall, but she dropped it as soon as she saw the number of people in the cavernous room and squealed in delight.

"Oh Reno, honey, you shouldn't have! You know how much I love company." Her voice was a little mellower than the laugh had suggested. It had the typical slum drawl, and though it was definitely livelier than most Midgarian voices, Reeve quickly upped her age to mid- to late-sixties. He stood up as the woman flung herself at Reno in a fluttering hug, then trotted over to the trestle tables to introduce herself. Reeve was surprised she could move as fast as she did on stiletto heels.

"Hi! I'm Button, joint co-ordinator of buttons and blows." She flashed the billion-watt smile again and the dark-tanned skin around her eyes crinkled. "You're all friends of Reno and Lana's, right?"

Cloud was still staring in slight shock at the bouncy young woman, so Tifa took over with a gracious smile. "We sure are. My name's Tifa Lockhart – this is Cloud Strife – Vincent Valentine – Seth Gainsborough – that's Rude over there, he's a good friend of Reno's…" She carefully introduced those who probably wouldn't have introduced themselves, and then Aeris wiggled her fingers at Button.

"I'm Aeris – Seth's wife." She said without missing a beat. Button made a soft sound of disappointment.

"Oh, honey, that's not _nice_ – bringing such a gorgeous man in here when he's taken." She lamented aloud with a wink. "I guess I'll just have to stick with the lunkhead a little while longer." She flicked a hand at Tone behind her, who just shook his head, then turned her attention to those closest to her.

Elena introduced herself with slight amusement. She wondered what Button would do if she knew who 'Seth' really was. "I'm Elena – I work with Reno and Lana."

"Cid Highwind." The pilot grunted from the other end of the table, not even removing the cigarette from between his lips. Barret made a similar sort of introduction, while Cait Sith leaped up and down to introduce himself to the beautiful woman, then called over his creator.

Reeve grinned as he shook Button's hand. "Hiya – name's Reeve. Reno works for me."

Button rolled her eyes. "I know who _you_ are, Mr President." She said with a smile. "Now, where are rolls number thirteen and fourteen?" She turned to Tone inquiringly, hands on her hips. The older man gestured to the end of the hall.

"Roll thirteen's name is Yuffie. She's takin' a shower at the moment."

"Ooh, do you mean Kisaragi Yuffie?" Button asked brightly. "I've never met a Wutaian Lady before. What's she like?"

There was a simultaneous, "_Annoying_," from Cid, Barret, Cait Sith and Reno.

In the silence that followed, a muffled, "I _heard_ that!" came from the bathroom. The door slammed open and Yuffie stomped out, hair hanging messily around her face. "_You're_ all super-annoying too, y'know." It came out cross but by the time she reached them she was smiling again and holding out a calloused hand for Button to take. "Hiya, I'm Yuffie."

"Button," the blonde replied with a nod of her head. She raised an expectant brow at Tone. "And what's roll fourteen doing?"

Tone shook his head again. "She's been sittin' there the whole time, quiet as a mouse, while Cyclone Button went over her head, what else?" He pointed a salami-stick finger at Feather, who turned slightly pink.

"Hello," she said softly.

There was a pause. Everyone glanced at Button to see what the problem was, only to find her mouth wide open in surprise and a crazed glee building up in her eyes. The voice seemed to have been shocked out of her. Tone grabbed her arm worriedly. "Hey, Button, you all right, girl?"

Button mouthed soundlessly for a few seconds, finally resorting to grabbing both of Tone's hands and jumping up and down on the spot in something greatly resembling the pee-pee dance. Yuffie took several small steps backward, then actually turned and walked to the far end of the table. Which said a great deal, given Yuffie's personality.

Tone stared at his partner for a few moments, nonplussed, until she finally gasped out, "Ice Dancer!" and fell onto his shoulder giggling to herself. The fat man raised one bushy eyebrow and glanced back at the confused Feather before his eyes widened in recognition.

"Well I'll be damned… you are, too."

Feather's pale eyes were wide in confusion when Reeve stepped up behind her and clamped a hand onto her bare shoulder. "Do you know her? Do you know Feather?" He asked, voice tight. She gasped softly and came half to her feet, catching at the table to steady herself. Button collected herself enough to give them all an extremely incredulous look.

"Do I _know_ her!" She demanded. "I've been her fan since I was four years old!"

- - - - - - - - - -

The crowd around the table had dispersed. Now Feather and Button sat opposite each other, the latter sorting through a small trunk, which she held on her lap. Having been told that Feather had lost her memory, the older woman had been shocked and a little disappointed.

"_Oh no… that is the most _horrible_ thing I've ever heard. But honey, don't you worry about a thing. I wasn't your fan for nothin', y'know."_

The trunk contained flyers, recordings, old ticket stubs and more. Reeve had offered to sit with Feather as Button explained her past, but the girl had showed a surprising stubborn streak and sent him off to bed.

Feather glanced over her shoulder to the rows of beds. Reeve lay in the dimness on the other side of the hall, staring up at the ceiling with a troubled expression on his face. She appreciated his concern very much. Yet this was private. Personal. She touched her namesake to her nose thoughtfully and Button smiled.

"I guess that must be Chief's feather," she said softly. "He was the only white Chocobo around back then."

"Back then?"

"…honey, it was more than fifty years ago." Reaching out one golden hand, Button handed Feather a flyer. The young woman stared, transfixed, at herself.

The same tattoo ran down her left cheek; her lips were tattooed with the same jagged, fiery lines. Her hair was shorter but still jagged, worn tied at her neck instead of wild down her back. Her costume was not worn and black, but glittering snow green sequins, tassels flying from the hips and the shoulders. A performer's smile was plastered on her face as she balanced upon the hips of a magnificent white Chocobo.

For all the minor differences, she looked exactly the same. She hadn't aged a day.

Feather's eyes stung as she looked at the image. Button watched her sympathetically. "You were a dancer, you know? I don't know how they did it, but when you danced there would be those snowflake patterns forming behind you on the floor, just like magic… It was beautiful." She smiled wistfully. "I only saw you once for real, but I bought films of all the different acts you did. Maybe later, if you wanted, we could watch a couple." She pushed the case toward Feather. "You went missing when I was seven and a half. No one knew _where_ you'd gone."

The younger woman sifted through the trunk's contents with an expression of intense disappointment. CDs, pictures, little figurines and snow globes and stickers…

"It isn't me," she whispered finally. "I… it _must_ be me, but… I don't remember anything. Nothing even seems _familiar_ to me. It's all just… _gone_." She covered her mouth and nose with one had as she tried to stifle tears, closing her eyes. Dark lashes clotted with the saline liquid and Button reached out both her golden hands to take the pale one holding the feather.

"Honey, I don't know what happened to you. But don't worry about it, okay? I'm sure it'll all come back to you eventually." Soft blue eyes looked earnestly into hers, the fine lines around them deepening in an expression of concern. "Would it help you to hear your name, do you think?"

Feather stood up and pulled her hand away. She knew that it would not.

- - - - - - - - - -

Reeve was staring so hard at the ceiling he jumped when a shadow fell across his bed. He stared into the mournful face of Feather and immediately, automatically, held out his arms to her. Feather collapsed onto the bed beside him and buried her face in his chest.

Reeve shifted so that he could hug her properly and rested his chin on top of her head. "I guess it didn't go so well, huh?" He murmured to her. She shook her head and clutched at his shirt like a small child, desperate for the nightmares to go away. Reeve sighed softly, the expelled air shifting tendrils of her thick, dark hair.

"It's all right," he comforted her lightly. "Don't worry about it, kiddo. You'll probably remember everything eventually. 'Til then, just… stick with what you know."

Feather's arm slipped around his waist and tightened. "I don't… _want_ to. I'm not the same _person_. I like the name _you_ gave me." She said sadly. Reeve glanced down in surprise and she pulled back a little to stare at the luminously white Chocobo quill.

"Button showed me some pictures… I look so different," she whispered. "But I haven't changed. I'm still… the same. She says I've been missing for half a century, but I'm no younger in the photographs. My hair's grown, but that's… that's all." She closed her eyes. "I don't understand."

Reeve stared down at her in confusion. "Does that mean that whatever happened to you at the deep sea complex made you immortal?" She certainly wouldn't be the first to have been so altered by a scientific procedure, though he hated to think that Feather might have been through torment similar to Vincent's…

Feather sighed deeply. "I don't know." Her arm tightened about his waist again and she pulled herself closer, hiding her face in the fabric of his shirt. "I don't want to think right now. Can I sleep here with you?"

Reeve stared at the top of her head for a few seconds in shock, then chuckled lightly. She was a beautiful, - possibly forever - young woman in a short, strapless leather dress attached to his chest. What sort of question was _that_, though he knew she didn't mean it. He dropped his chin forward to rest on her hair again and smiled with a slight shake of his head.

"Of course you can, Feather. Sweet dreams."

He wasn't sure what sort of dreams _he'd_ be having, though.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Phoenix. Bahamut." Cold fury and gritted teeth permeated the darkness.

"What's up, boss-man?" A scratchy but nonetheless likeable voice, a hint of bright blue eyes. From the other side of the room, the cooler, more attentive glint of gold.

"I do not appreciate their persistence. Get rid of them, or risk my displeasure."

"We talkin' crushing-of-skulls displeasure like the twins?" The other queried with a hint of apprehension.

"Yes."

"You got it, boss-man. They won't know what hit 'em."

- - - - - - - - - -

A/N: A little longer than the last chapter, but far more disjointed. The Reno scene came out of nowhere, although I am working on two prequels to this – one set during the Jenova Project, one set during and a little before FFVII. The latter contains Reno's lamentable past. I'll keep you posted on its progress. (It's somewhat like Before Crisis, now I think about it, but I had the idea months before I'd even heard of Advent Children, so it's like a big, weird coincidence…) I need to stop babbling – I feel like Kouta Hirano! Oh yeah, and all this places Reno at the grand old age of 22 – he's had a hard life, poor bugger.

**Demeter** – More on Reno. :D No, Reno wasn't a prostitute. Buttons and blows is just a safe-house organisation for any and all slum-dwellers who are willing to get out and defend other members if it means other tailors/seamstresses will get out and protect them when the time comes. His older brother, Thor, sort of did anything and everything for money, though.

**Karasu Kurokiba** - grins Where do I find my crown?

**Emri** – poleaxed is, to the best of my knowledge, the sort of stunned, confused expression one gets when one is clonked over the head with a poleaxe. Assuming one had an expression at all, y'know, being hit with a big old blade and all. And yet another cookie for you, since you've guessed very well. You wouldn't believe how annoyed I got with the fact that Support and Summon started with the same letter. . ;

**Zephyr Minamino** - leaps on the pixi sticks SUGAR!

**JML** – Technically Vincent _does_ still outrank the other three, experience-wise, but he's not a Turk any more and that makes all the difference as far as Reno's concerned.

Anyway, what are your theories so far? I'm curious to know what people have worked out. Review and let me know what you thought of the chapter, guys. Constructive criticism is appreciated!


	23. Dark Gods

Disclaimer: I do not own anything you've seen in FFVII. I do own everything else you've seen in this fic. I would appreciate them remaining mine. Trust me, you don't want them. The Imbued are really, really annoying.

A/N: And the plot marches on... this is the beginning of an exceedingly tight and convoluted turn of events. I was going to cover all of next chapter as well, but by the time I got there it was already more than eight pages long. Oh, and burning human really does smell like roast pork, according to my year ten SOSE handout on the Cold War and my Physics teacher. I'm not sure I want to know how _she_ knows that.

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter 23: Dark Gods

_There's a place so dark you can't see the end  
__Skies cock back and shock that which can't defend  
__The rain then sends dripping acidic questions  
__Forcefully: the power of suggestion  
__Then with the eyes shut  
__Looking through the rust and rot and dust  
__A small spot of light floods the floor  
__And pours over the rusted world of pretend  
__Then the eyes ease open-  
__And it's dark again.  
_- "Forgotten", Linkin Park

He knelt in the centre of the square, arms stretched out from either side of his body. His veins thrummed with excitement, anticipation. He'd learned the dance at long last, and he was finally going to be allowed to perform it. Before the house of the gods, no less.

He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply as he heard the first echo of the drum. He was ready. There were so many eyes on him, some bursting with the excitement and pride he felt, some sneering and loathing and doubting. His brows furrowed beneath messy, jagged black bangs as he thought, _I won't disappoint you._

The second beat of the drum fell and he rose to take his first steps, sashayed toward the crowd at the right before him.

Third beat. He brought his palms together and dropped to slap the ground, waited for his partner to join him.

Fourth beat. Fifth beat. She circled and retreated, sliding her feet apart and dropping into a graceful crouch.

Vincent lost track of the drums, of his partner, of the crowd. There was a deeper surge of life, of emotion, beneath the steps of the dance and the music now. He had never felt it before. It pulsed through him like a second heartbeat. He couldn't have stopped dancing if he'd tried and gods, he didn't want to try. It was wonderful, it was timeless and forever, it was creation, it was-

He slammed his left hand into the ground and stood, abruptly thrusting his open palm skywards.

It was over.

Someone screamed, and then others began to. He opened his eyes.

A ring of flame. The village was burning. _How!_ He stood in shock, palm still to the sky, as the wind picked up and tore through his hair, sweeping it across wide eyes as though it tried to block the sight of the villagers running. They were running away. They were leaving him in the middle of the flames and destruction and the banners were burning and his partner screamed in agony as she ran _into_ the fire to get away.

They ran from _him_.

- - - - - - - - - -

Red XIII had been dozing lightly at the foot of Yuffie's bed when he huffed out a contented sigh and noted the scent of Chaos in the air. Immediately his single golden eye shot open and he raised his head, shaggy mane dusty from sleeping on the earthen floor.

At the same moment Vincent jerked from sleep with a hoarse cry, claw thrust out before him as though he would remove it completely. Red stared in bewilderment as Vincent's wild eyes focused on the bronze metal. At first he seemed not to recognise it, but as he regained his breath the blood-red glare became more lucid.

His shoulders' heaving slowed and finally ceased altogether, the gauntlet sinking to rest on the purple fabric of his bedspread. He didn't have the look of a man who'd be able to go back to sleep. Red sighed softly. Vincent did have a tendency to dwell…

He got wearily to his feet and padded over to the no longer red-cloaked man. (It was draped a little forlornly over the foot of the bed.) Vincent looked a little startled to have company and even more startled when Red leaped lightly onto the end of the bed, sitting down on his feet.

"Are you all right?" Red inquired. Vincent stared at the lion-like beast for a moment and finally shook his head.

"Nightmare." He said briefly. Red nodded once and stared at the gauntlet absently, wondering how to approach this.

"I thought you might like to know," he said at last, "That when you have dreams like this, Chaos gets stronger. I can smell it separate from you when you dream." Vincent's face was carefully blank, which meant he was alarmed. Red eyed him fiercely until he nodded slowly, hair spilling over his face in a jagged avalanche of night.

"I know." The words were so low that even Red barely heard them. The feline tilted his shaggy head slightly to the side, unblinking.

"You can't keep everything to yourself, Vincent. Sooner or later you're going to have to realise that everyone needs someone, even a self-proclaimed monster." He said sensibly. "More importantly, you're going to have to realise that no matter how you try to keep yourself to yourself… other people are going to be affected."

Vincent's eyes narrowed. "If this is about Yuffie-" he began coldly, but Red shook his head.

"No, this is about everyone." The growl of Red's voice became more pronounced and less a unique feature of animal lungs speaking a human tongue. "If Chaos is getting stronger, if it is a danger to us, we need to find some way of subduing it, and you can't do that by yourself."

The muscles in Vincent's jaw clenched. He closed his eyes. "Thankyou for your concern, Nanaki," he forced out the words, "But I would prefer to keep this private until I know more about it."

The beast whuffled slightly in annoyance or amusement and stood, padding the length of the bed to butt lightly against Vincent's head with his own. Scarlet eyes widened in surprise, anger briefly forgotten. Red withdrew with an enigmatic twinkle in his golden eye.

"Don't forget what I said," he suggested. "But don't forget about what _you_ said, either." With that he leaped from the mattress, causing Vincent to bob up and down for a moment on the worn springs, and padded back to the foot of Yuffie's bed. He curled up on the floor once again, nose to tail, and left Vincent to his thoughts.

- - - - - - - - - -

Aeris found herself smiling an awful lot the following morning. Sephiroth had approached her expectantly halfway through breakfast and much to the wide-eyed surprise of the rest of the group she had braided his hair as carefully as she did her own. It hadn't occurred to her that they hadn't seen her do this before, but she understood that it must be something of a shock to see Sephiroth, once a great General, have his hair braided by a flower girl.

Although she had to say, the staring and gaping (and occasional sputters from Barret) hadn't done wonders for their newlyweds cover. Aeris had done her best to salvage that by curling the braid around Sephiroth's neck and kissing him on the cheek with an indulgent smile - fortunately this had served to remind AVALANCHE that Aeris and _Seth_ were married rather than shocking them further at the thought of Aeris kissing _Sephiroth_.

Sephiroth in his turn had responded with a smile warmer than she'd thought him capable of, handing her a cup of tea and surprising her by somehow knowing she took it very white with two and a half sugars.

Perhaps it was some sort of extended Stockholme Syndrome.

They left buttons and blows (and Reeve and Feather) early, retracing their steps to the ruined foot of Shinra Tower. Red climbed the rubble first and peered at the blackness inside, tail twitching.

"It's not much lighter than yesterday, but it's a start." He reported. "We'll definitely need the torches; there can't still be power further underground, if that's where the passage is going to take us."

Aeris used the Princess Guard as a walking stick as she ascended the rubble, unabashedly holding her skirt to one side so it wouldn't impede her progress. She had nothing to worry about - Reno had been one of the first into the building. When she reached the top and was able to see into the hole properly, she grimaced. She understood what Feather had meant by 'the Death', now - the place had a very bad feel to it, as though it meant them harm.

She frowned. Very few places felt like that. It was more than possible that some of the people killed in the impact of Meteor hadn't reached the Lifestream…

Aeris stabbed her staff firmly into the rubble in front of her and brushed away her feeling of foreboding, concentrating on keeping her footing in the darkness. She heard the heavy crunching of an animatronic Moogle behind her and turned just in time to be half-blinded by Cait Sith's version of high beams. He chuckled as she flung up an arm and turned back to the darkness, spots of colour flashing behind her eyelids.

"_Sorry 'bout that, Aeris._" Reeve's voice issued from Cait's mouth. "_Couldn't see anything past the mouth of the hole_."

Aeris waited until the Mog passed her and then followed its lumbering progress. "Why'd you stay behind if you still want to see?" She asked with a wry smile. Reeve's response was thoughtful.

"_Feather's a little fragile right now. She didn't like it there yesterday… I didn't want to make her go down there, or leave her alone up here. Even a President's gotta have some standards, y'know._" He added jokingly. Aeris giggled appreciatively.

"That's sweet of you, Reeve." She told him. Even miles away, she could sense him blush. "Cait, hurry up, or we'll lose everyone else!"

"It ain't my fault the boss is a blabbermouth!" Cait retorted. In the same opening of his mouth Reeve declared, "_Pot! Kettle! Black!_"

Aeris laughed.

Rude, who had not removed his sunglasses, beckoned them over behind a crumbling wall to where the rest of AVALANCHE had gathered. Seeing a gaping blackness in the range of Cait's searchlight, she pressed forward and peered down into it. At the bottom, some two or three stories below, Cloud and Vincent stood on the top of a floored elevator cage. Cloud was holding Ultima Weapon in one hand and a torch in the other, shining it so that everyone standing on solid ground above could see what Vincent was doing - the red-cloaked man would have done better in the darkness, Aeris was sure, rather than with the glare and harsh shadows of torchlight.

Vincent was sitting on his haunches, scraping his claw around the edges of the hatch in the top of the elevator and trying to prise it open. The elevator cable had been shoved to the edge of the available space to get it out of the way - it looked like Cloud was trying to keep it at bay by standing on some of it. Vincent made a small sound as he found whatever he'd been looking for and jammed the digits of his gauntlet under the edge of the hatch. He stood abruptly and there was a short scream of metal as the hatch actually came away from the elevator cage, clanging heavily to a halt against the stone wall.

Cloud looked up, blue eyes glowing softly. "Hey, Aeris. Vincent's gonna jump up with the lift cable now - you might want to step out of the way."

She did as she was asked, backing to a safe distance. Ten muted clangs and another gouge in the stone floor later, Vincent was crouched not three feet from her. He yanked his claw from the concrete and turned to the group, holding the cable with his right hand.

"Someone else will have to tie this." He said blandly. He'd accepted the loss of things like tying sturdy knots long ago. Cid stepped forward, grabbing the heavy cable in both hands and tugging it over to an immense chunk of concrete with thick steel pipes protruding from one end. Vincent walked calmly back to the edge of the hole, marked Cloud's position, and dropped with twin clangs to the level of the elevator again. Aeris ran forward to stare over the edge again.

Cloud stared up at her. "Right, we'll tell you when we've got the doors open. Might take a while. Make sure that cable's nice and secure, then start coming down - Barret and Rude first, I think we'll need you."

Barret grinned at no one in particular. Cid snorted and shook his head. Aeris found herself feeling a little nostalgic as the bear-like man heaved himself over the side of the pit and descended via the cable Cid had tied. She crossed her arms and watched Barret climb down first, barely managing to squeeze himself through the hatch after Cloud and Vincent and swearing softly all the time.

Rude stepped up to the lift shaft next. Aeris looked up and was startled to see he'd removed his sunglasses. She could see the barest glimmer of his eyes above her head and she smiled to herself in the darkness.

"And here I thought those were glued on," she teased. Rude tilted his head in her direction as he grabbed the cable and backed cautiously off the edge and into the gaping black hole. Though she couldn't be sure, she thought she saw the vaguest hint of a smile.

Elena trotted over to the hole and peered down after him, a carefully blank expression on her face, which meant she was worried. Aeris smiled and nudged her. "So, what do you think we'll find?" The Turk issued a small shrug.

"I'm sort of undecided on what to hope for," she confessed lowly. "On one hand, I hope it's nothing, because I really don't want to see more of what was in Nibelheim. On the other hand, I'd really like to pay back the people who kidnapped my boss." Elena tucked a few strands of blond hair behind her ear, crossing her arms nervously.

Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Clank. Clunk. _Clunk. Clunk_. _Clank_.

These were the sounds that preceded Vincent's speedy progress up the lift shaft. Aeris grabbed Elena by the arm and tugged her sharply backwards just in time to avoid the red-cloaked man's landing on the lip of the abyss, only this time he didn't quite land. Instead, he clung in a rather undignified manner to the edge, like a limpet, and said, "The doors are open, and we've cut open the top of the lift. Come down one by one, Cait Sith first. We'll need your headlights." Then he dropped back into the darkness with a resounding _CLANG!_

Yuffie shook her head in disgust. "Is it just me, or has he been _way_ too chirpy lately?"

Elena snorted. "That was _chirpy?_"

"On Valentine?" Cid asked wryly. "#$, I'd call that _high_."

- - - - - - - - - -

Cait Sith led the group down a long metal hall, which Reno commented were similar to the inside of the labyrinthine complex from which they'd rescued Reeve and Feather. Surprisingly, this description cheered the group up - it meant they probably were going to find something related to their self-appointed mission.

Similar to the innards of the complex, the hallway was long and very slightly curved. After about fifteen minutes, it straightened out into a corridor about a hundred metres long, and at the end of that corridor, there was a glowing green square.

Cait Sith announced this discovery with much enthusiasm, a short squeal of carnival music bursting from the Moogle he rode. There was barely a pause as weapons were readied and then Cait continued the advance.

The square of green light was both more and less exciting than it could have been. It turned out to be the call button for a large, cylindrical elevator. The metal was still smooth and clean, indicating that it was either made from a highly sustainable material, or it was still in fairly regular use. Cloud pushed the button and the doors slid open with a small, cheerful _ding!_

He stared at the interior for a moment, then shouldered Ultima Weapon. "Everybody in?" He suggested, raising an eyebrow. It was spacious enough to fit perhaps twenty people without discomfort. A single silver metal handrail ran around the inside of the elevator. The floor and ceiling were steel, painted an industrial burnt orange beloved of Shinra workers Planet-wide.

Yuffie peered at the sides of the elevator curiously. "Hey, there aren't any buttons." Other than the metal of the door, the sides of the elevator were completely made of glass, though there were four metal poles spaced evenly around the circumference of the cage. As she spoke, the elevator lurched to life. She tensed involuntarily at the sudden drop in altitude - for a lift that was presumably Shinra-made, it was pretty fast. The lift shaft had been hollowed so precisely that at any given point the cage was about two inches from the rock walls, bracing notwithstanding.

Static hissed from Cait Sith's mouth, interspersed with occasional bursts of Reeve's voice. The mechanical cat shrugged helplessly at his companions and flattened his ears, severing the communication. "We're too far down to talk to the Boss any more."

Tifa looked intrigued. "Just how far down are we, Cait?"

One white-socked paw tapped the brow of the Moogle thoughtfully. "Nearly a kilometre by now." The elevator began to slow and he grinned to himself. "Looks like our mad doctors were pedantic - it's going to be exactly a kilometre."

The whirring of the lift died down into barely a murmur, then ceased entirely. There was an expectant sort of pause and then the doors eased open to reveal nothing but darkness.

Cloud raised his sword, eyes gleaming softly even without light. "Cait, you first of all. Vincent, Reno, you follow. Sephiroth and I will back you. Red, you light the way for everyone else 'til we're sure we can use the flashlights without being detected." Behind him, he heard Yuffie snort and mutter bitterly to Aeris about always being underestimated and she could see damn well in the dark thankyou-very-much. Cloud ignored her, watching attentively as Cait Sith trundled forward, eyes protruding slightly with the addition of night-vision lenses. Vincent and Reno ghosted out the elevator doors after the mechanical cat, their weapons raised. The Turk's electro-mag rod hummed vengefully, a tiny spark of blue flickering at the tip. Cloud glanced across the elevator at Sephiroth and started to move, matching the other man's silent strides but wary of the cold glint of Masamune.

Their shadows stretched long before them on a smooth metal path similar to the one in the corridor above, the light from Red's tail making them fidgety and uncertain. They advanced fifty feet or so before Yuffie whispered, "Can't the kitty just turn his eyes on, now? It's not like Red's tail's any less noticeable."

"Not wise," Vincent responded softly. "There's light ahead."

Yuffie's voice was frustrated. "What difference does _that_ make?"

Sephiroth was the one to answer her question. "We won't be able to see an approach against the light if we have light of our own. Nanaki should walk behind the main group." His voice carried no hint of rebuke; it merely supplied the information she required. Cloud glanced at him in surprise and nodded. It made sense. In a corner of his mind, a young soldier hung his head sheepishly before the good sense and experience of his General.

Cloud shook that away. "True," he agreed quietly. "Red, hang back and try to keep your tail low. Cait, Reno and Vincent in the lead. I'll follow with Sephiroth - Rude, I want you and Yuffie at our backs."

The Turk moved forward and Cloud frowned at the absence of a glow around his eyes. "Do you still have your sunglasses on?" He asked, confused. Rude shook his head. "Your eyes don't glow. Reno's do. What's the deal?"

"They don't make 'em like they used to." Rude said blandly. From up ahead, Reno scoffed.

"You wish, Rude! And what's that say 'bout Laney?" There was a flash of malachite up ahead as Reno glanced back. "What he meant to say there was, Reno grew up under a reactor, so he's best friends with mako radiation. Makes a pretty nice supplement to the slum diet, actually."

From behind him, Cloud heard Tifa make a soft sound of disgust. "You say that like it's a _good_ thing."

"I never starved," Reno pointed out with relentless optimism. "And I'm not dead yet."

- - - - - - - - - -

The light preceded a widening of the corridor. Two ramps, like the sort Elena had seen in Plate 11 shopping villages, split from the level they were on. The up ramp was well lit with fluoro bulbs in the ceiling and lining the path, but the grid for the down ramp seemed to have failed. Elena had been surprised that any of the lights here were working. Since they were, she suspected someone had re-routed a non-mako power supply, or someone had known that the Planet wouldn't always stand for the use of its lifeblood…

The corridor suddenly felt a little chillier. Elena buttoned up her suit jacket across her chest, leaving the rest undone so it didn't constrict her movement too much. She smiled a little bitterly as she remembered her first real fight. She'd popped all the buttons off her favourite jacket. Back then, that had been reason enough to go calling for AVALANCHE's blood. She was a little more laid back about her clothing, now. A little.

Reno was standing at the top of the down ramp, peering down the narrow gap between pathways. "I think it goes down a fair way. Can't tell without the light." He squinted at the crack between the upper walkways and his lips flattened into a line. "Two, three storeys, maybe?"

Tifa sighed. "They couldn't just put an elevator stop on that floor, huh. Nope, it's gotta be _stairs_, or some variant thereof." She shot a withering look at Cloud, who tried to look innocent. Barret grinned.

"Knew ya'd see it my way eventually, Tifa." He said smugly, crossing his arms. Elena raised her eyebrows, mystified. She glanced across to Rude, who looked a little odd for some reason.

"This is one of those pre-me conversations, huh?"

Rude shrugged at her. "They took the stairs instead of coming in the front when they stormed HQ." Elena winced.

"That sounds ugly. All the way?"

"All the way," Rude affirmed. Elena made a face, which made Rude crinkle his eyes a little at her. She blinked and then opened her mouth, raising a hand to point gleefully at his face. Rude saw this coming, grabbed her well-manicured hand with a darker, callused one and calmly stifled whatever she'd been about to say with the other. "Don't." He said pointedly. Elena made puppy eyes at him but his expression didn't change. He let her go once her shoulders had slumped in defeat. Elena poked her tongue out at him and turned back to the rest of the group, eyes on Cloud, who was deep in thought.

"Any preferences on up or down?" He asked, one hand resting on the handrail of the down ramp. "I'll be heading this way."

Sephiroth raised a gloved hand demurely. "I'd prefer to go below. There's something not quite… right upstairs." He looked at Cloud and for a moment Elena had the eerie sense that each knew precisely what the other was talking about.

Aeris was next to voice her opinion. "I think I'd like to go with the light." She gestured to the upper ramp pointedly. "Why don't you take people who can see well in the dark?"

Cloud nodded and glanced over their group. "All right. Vincent, Red… Cait, you're probably a go as well unless you want to try to contact Reeve on the upper level." The animatronic feline shook his head.

"A few storeys won't make a lick of difference to my radar." He admitted. "I'll be more useful down below if the lights are all out."

Cloud nodded. "Reno, Rude?" He queried. Both Turks issued shrugs, which he took as acceptance. "All right, so who does that leave upstairs?"

Elena put her hands on her hips. It left all the girls, plus Barret and Cid. She couldn't help but feel a little gypped about that, but there was no reason to complain about it, Sephiroth's spider-sense aside. She wouldn't have to work around Reno, at least. "Well, you boys have fun in the dark," she said. "You'd better make sure Rude keeps his glasses away, Reno, we don't want him to trip on something."

Rude made a gesture worthy of his name and childishly donned his sunglasses.

- - - - - - - - - -

A/N: Once again, let me know what you think. I'll have the next part out fairly soon, I think - these chapters were well documented months ago. Having said that, however, they do seem to spiral out of control, so...

Bahamut seems to have sparked a lot of attention. :rolls up sleeves and prepares to answer questions:

**JML** - I know, it sounds unlikely, doesn't it? Well, don't worry. Bahamut is only lorded over when it suits her purposes to be so.

**Emri** - Nanaki had to sleep on the floor, due to him being a large feline and Tone not wanting to have to clean the beds of shed fur as well as dirt and bodily fluids. Button is Tone's life partner, but they never actually bothered with marriage. No financial benefits to marriage in the slums, and it's a hassle if they ever decided that they didn't want to be married. The fifty year thing will be explained later - but yes, Vincent would have been seven, according to my reckoning.

**Shinotenshi** - Hahaha. Well, all right, I'll give you a hint, but only a really little hint... which will be explained more fully in a few chapters' time, anyway. You remember all that rain around the Wutai area? Well, do you remember how cold it got in that short time that Shiva was free? The whole Planet felt the drop in temperature when the ice goddess got free. I bet you can guess what havoc the Water God will cause. ;-)

**Demeter** - :giggle: Actually, the one speaking in that scene was Phoenix. But I'm glad you liked him - he's one of my favourites. Development with Feather will continue, I promise you. She's one of my favourites, too. .


	24. Shards

Disclaimer: I do not own anything you've seen in FFVII. Everything else, I do own. I wish I owned a SOLDIER uniform; I think they're spiffy.

A/N: Another chapter heavy on the plot. We'll return to mindless fluff shortly.

-- I'm pretending Sephiroth knows Hajime Saitou's Ak Suk Zan. ;D

-- Fuck, I hate battle scenes.

-- OMG200REVIEWSYAY. Therefore, this chapter goes up early. Thanks for all your support, guys!

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter 24: Shards

_I can see inside you, the sickness is rising  
__Don't try to deny what you feel  
__It seems that all that was good has died  
__And is decaying in me  
__It seems you're having some trouble  
__In dealing with these changes  
__Living with these changes  
__The world is a scary place now that you've woken up the demon in me  
_-- "Down with the Sickness", Disturbed

Reno was beginning to wish he hadn't agreed to this so easily. Sure, he'd spent the first seventeen years of his life practically living in a reactor, but that didn't mean he _liked_ mako. Heck, he probably liked mako even less than most slum folk. In any case, it ran down the edge of the walkway in the tiny gutter at the edge of the walkway and irritated him with its presence, much like the cold-warm trickle of memories through his head.

It had been years since he'd felt this bad about the loss of his family. _Talking with Meltzer must've raised a few old ghosts,_ he thought with a glare at the mako. It wasn't that Reno was superstitious about the stuff. It was in his blood, after all. But… he'd _seen_ what it had done to Buta-

Reno closed his eyes and grit his teeth, taking a deep breath through his nose. He tapped his Nightstick against his leg, agitated. "Hey, Strife." Cloud glanced back at him, blue eyes bright in the gloom. "You feeling anything, uh… weird?" Reno asked, at a loss for a better way to describe it that wouldn't completely betray his manly Turk exterior. Cloud's eyes became briefly blank and puzzled before Sephiroth answered for him.

"There is something," he agreed, seeming uneasy but betraying nothing in his voice. "I don't know who, or what, it is. Perhaps it depends on mako in the bloodstream."

Reno pursed his lips. "Shit." He said, matter-of-fact. "That's you, me, Strife and Valentine. Maybe Red, too." He glanced at Rude, who did not look happy. "Looks like it's up to you, buddy."

Cait Sith made a small noise of disgust. "Hey, I helped save the Planet too, y'know." He said sulkily. "It's not like I've got nothin' going for me. Just because I'm fluffier than he is…" The cat crossed his arms and his Mog turned its eyes off hi-beam. Red sighed.

"Cait, we all know you helped save the Planet." He said mollifyingly. "If Reno is right, you'll definitely have the chance to prove your worth and rub it in our faces. However for the moment, please keep your guard up." Cait perked up a little, but the Mog's spotlights didn't start up again. Reno sighed. He preferred having the headlights. He could see fine without them, but the mako trickle glowed just enough to make everything look creepy.

Having Valentine and Sephiroth looming behind him wasn't helping Reno any, either. He was grateful the ex-Turk wore metal shoes. It meant Reno could hear him on the metal of the walkway. The General, however, was silent as the grave. Reno grinned a little to himself upon reflection that the man's eyes probably out-glowed Cait's headlights, but the expression soon faded. He felt sick.

Cait made a small sound of surprise as they turned onto the last part of the ramp and came face to face with what could loosely be called a door. Once, it had probably been one of the air-tight sliders they had in Junon, but something had blasted a hole right through the middle of it, leaving jagged, crispy curls of metal on either side. The wall above the door was cracked, and a little charred, as well. Reno flicked a switch on his electro-mag rod and held it out from his body a little, eyes narrowing at the sight. Cloud held up a hand, forestalling any movement they might have made.

"Red." Surely even the lion-like creature couldn't hear that murmur, but sure enough Nanaki padded cautiously past the flickering, sparking tip of the Nightstick. Reno's thumb dialled it down to a lower setting and he swung it up to rest in the crook of his other arm. Cloud's hand hovered above the animal's neck, just shy of grabbing Red's shaggy mane. Reno's frown deepened. So, Cloud wasn't as immune as he pretended to be - this place was getting to him, too.

"There doesn't seem to be any movement. I smell… burning." Reno could sense Valentine shift uneasily behind him. "No smoke. It must be the remnants of the door," Red concluded. He slipped past Cait, curving gracefully to glance back at them with a single amber eye.

"I'll go first."

He slithered lithely through the opening and into the darkness beyond. Cloud advanced slowly behind him, staring for a few moments at the wreckage of the door. "Cait, can you fit through this?"

The bulky robot flicked his ears back. "I dunno." He prowled forward and the Mog beat its fists together thoughtfully. "Nup. You might be able to open it from inside, though."

Cloud nodded. "All right - everyone through. We'll try to get the door open." He gripped one mangled edge of the hatch gently and disappeared through the hole. Reno slipped through after him, careful not to cut himself on the twisted metal.

"Whoever made that sure did a number on the door," he muttered to himself. Behind him, he heard a slight ripping sound and turned to see that Valentine's cloak had been partially shredded by the knife-sharp edges of the hatch. Reno fought the urge to smirk as the ex-Turk calmly plucked his cloak free before any more tearing could occur and finished getting through the hole. He lost the battle with a grin, however, as Sephiroth then made sure his precious braid was well out of harm's way behind his collar before he braved the mangled door. Apparently Cait found this fairly amusing, too - Reno heard a burst of sniggering, silenced the instant that Sephiroth's eyes narrowed in a glare. The redheaded Turk chuckled and turned to survey the room he'd stepped into.

His grip on the Nightstick tightened. It was more a cavern than a room, graduated just like the Mt Nibel Reactor had been, with several specimen pods nestled on each ledge. Most of the pods seemed to be both more spacious and more complicated than others they had seen, though, the back of each spewing cords and pipes enough to completely eclipse the steel hull. He couldn't see how many there were - the room degenerated into impenetrable darkness past the second row of tanks, only a few oddly lit pieces of metal visible due to mako glow. At the front of the room were several smaller pods, separated from the others by a low bar painted red. It was these that Red XIII had paused before.

"Control pods," he said, a hint of anger in his already gruff voice. Reno sauntered up beside him, peering in interest at the pods.

"How d'you know that?" He asked, standing on the bar to peer in the port hole of the middle pod. "Don't tell me you have detachable eye stalks or something…"

Rude's voice was chill and matter-of-fact from behind him. "You're standing on one of the labels." Reno looked down from the gross, mermaid-esque figure in the tank and grimaced at the "NTROL P" visible around the tips of his shoes, as though it was their fault. He stepped down from the bar and Rude's hand landed on his shoulder.

"Focus, chief."

The words were quiet, but their effect on Reno was immediate. The redhead nodded once and turned to look back the way they had come. "How's that door coming?"

Vincent just shrugged. Cloud was a little more helpful, turning to shake his head resignedly. "No luck so far. I think it was meant to be automatic, but with the electricity gone…" He let the sentence go as Sephiroth started to climb the ramp that lead to the higher pods, eyes narrowing a little in consternation. "Sephiroth!"

The silver-haired man turned and Cloud abruptly felt as though he should salute and apologise to the illustrious General. He scowled and the fingers on the hilt of Ultima Weapon tightened. He was starting to get fuzzy again. It wasn't only answers to certain questions but who and what he was that was beginning to fade, hair colour and accent swirling in and out of his head. With an effort, he continued, though his words were not what he had originally intended to say. "I think you're right about there being something wrong. Be careful."

Sephiroth chuckled darkly. "If I feel the sudden overpowering urge to visit Mother, I'll let you know," he promised idly. He was looking over the pods with a strangely impersonal gaze, frowning a little as he made note of something or other on the pods. Cloud watched him, eyes blank, for a few moments and then backtracked to tell Cait to stay where he was.

Focusing on the first pod, Cloud had to grip the rounded edge of the hatch to see inside it. There wasn't a person inside this one, no materia and no mako - though he thought he could see hints of it still sitting in the very bottom. Whatever experiment had been done here was complete, but whether it had been successful was an entirely different question.

The next pod was drained of mako, but contained something that had once been human. Cloud grimaced at the sight of a young man, darkly tanned Gongagan skin crusted with some strange crystallisation of the Planet's lifeblood. If he squinted, Cloud imagined he could almost see the metal panels and spills of important cords through the poor man's torso. Claws erupted from his fingertips, palms as black as soot looked as thought they had thickened and hardened past mere calluses, but the most disturbing thing was the pair of horns that swept forth from his head. They, too, were translucent, the very base containing a clearly visible network of nerves and blood vessels gone dark and dead long ago. Cloud shuddered and dropped back to the ground.

"Sephiroth, if there's materia in a pod, get it out. I want Yuffie to classify these when we get back topside."

Reno raised an eyebrow and peered into Cloud's pod. "Well, it's a Summon, if that's what you mean…" Cloud rolled his eyes.

"I'm not an idiot. I want to know what kind of Summon it is. I'd say one of each, but I want to be sure." Sephiroth strode to the far left of the second tier of pods as Cloud began prying at the door of the tank labelled S-05. Reno watched him for a second, then nodded to Rude.

"We'll start on this side, then. Valentine, you want to give Seph a hand?"

Though Vincent barely acknowledged the redhead's existence, 'Seph' - who by this stage was bored and irritated by nicknames - glared at Reno with eyes full of malicious witch-light before returning to his task of ripping off the front of the pod labelled S-08.

They worked through the pods slowly, for they were heavy and difficult to open. Of the four pods on the first tier there were two once-humans, the second a ridiculously thin teenager with shockingly pale skin and eyes so vivid a gold that they could be seen through the translucent eyelids. Cloud collected a whole materia from each of the inhabited pods and wished there was something he could do for the corpses. The second row also yielded two materia, the first (taken from a tank with a girl no older than Yuffie with thick, dark hair frozen into the mako crystal that had taken over her skin) cracked directly down the centre but not split, the second whole and perfect though the boy in the tank looked as though he had been sewn together rather than born.

There were three pods on the next level that contained materia; Cloud, Reno and Rude pried them all open silently while Sephiroth and Vincent continued to the next level. It was not until Vincent reached the final tank that a harsh gasp was startled from him, shattering the brief calm that had formed while they worked. Cloud was instantly on guard, eyes snapping to the red-cloaked man, who stood as though he was not quite sure of what he was seeing. The blond man gripped his sword in preparation for battle. "What is it, Vincent?"

Dark hair clung to Vincent's cheeks as he turned, the red eyes a whirl of both fury and confusion.

"I believe it is Staniv."

- - - - - - - - - -

The hatch of this pod was easier to open than the rest of them had been. Perhaps the pressure of the mako within the pod had something to do with it, for as soon as Vincent's claw wedged it open the thick, startlingly green liquid gushed from the pod, eager to be freed. Though Staniv was clamped firmly to the 'seat' portion of the pod's interior, his boneless limbs followed the mako flow as long as they could, desperate to escape the confines of the tank but dragged down to his sides once more by the weight of bone and wasted muscle.

Vincent barely stood back long enough to allow the mako to drain away through slits in the floor, his claw wrenching the heavy door aside with a movement similar to a careless flick. He stared at the man inside the pod, pupils (though he could not see them) narrowed into slits. Though still recognisable, the Wutaian had changed considerably. Staniv's skin was no longer the dark stain expected of a Wutaian; in fact it could barely be called skin at all. The man seemed to be made almost entirely of the mako crystals except for the thread of veins visible through the crystal. Bone, too, seemed to have been absorbed into the mako crystallisation so that all the Wutaian consisted of was pale green crystal and dark red threads of blood.

_Red._

"He lives," Vincent murmured, unsure of whether to be horrified or satisfied. As though to back up this statement, the man's ribs creaked and grated as he took in a shuddering breath from the half-mask clamped around his jaw. Cloud grabbed Vincent by his good arm as the man ducked forward into the pod.

"Do you think it's safe to take him out?" He demanded, eyes flinty. Vincent's own eyes narrowed a little, but he issued a small shrug.

"There's no pump." He said shortly, as though this explained everything - as, if you were used to conversing with Vincent, it did. There was no pump, therefore the man had to be breathing on his own. If he was breathing on his own, there was no reason he shouldn't be able to do that outside the tank. Cloud released Vincent's arm and the red-cloaked man crouched inside the tank, his claw making short work of the restraints that had been applied to Staniv's elbows, neck and waist. Staniv would have landed with a jolt on his knees had not Vincent caught him around the waist and dragged him - gently - out of the pod.

Rude helped to prop up the Wutaian against pod S-15 while Reno yelled for Red XIII. A wave of Sephiroth's hand quietened him, and the silver-haired swordsman pointed out, "His eyes are open."

Vincent remained crouched before the Wutaian, examining Staniv's newly opened eyes. They were at the same moment tired and filled with an incredible, burning energy that lit their mahogany depths to a kind of ruddy amber. Staniv took another rattling, wheezing breath and made a sort of rasping noise. Red shook out his mane and made a soft growling sound.

"He can't speak. Our lungs do not work vocal cords of crystallised mako."

Despite Red's doubts, Staniv continued to try. Vincent tapped uncomfortably at the metal floor with the tip of his claw and said, "**Drana'c hu isa. Tuh'd cbayg; fa'mm kad oui du **Yuffie."

Staniv's attempts at speech ceased. He concentrated for a moment and slowly, creaking and crackling as though it had been frozen, his arm rose and his hand curled so that his index finger was extended and pointing at his feet. Cloud looked puzzled as the man began to scratch his mako-encrusted finger slowly across the metal but Vincent's eyes took on sudden understanding.

"He's writing something."

Silence fell except for the patient _screek_ of Staniv's fingertip across the steel. When Staniv's arm fell lax, Vincent shifted so that he could read the markings.

"Yuffie… Godo… Water God… keeping… safe… now… hers... Strength..." And, a little separate from the rest of them, "Love." Vincent frowned and glanced at Staniv, who raised his arm and pointed to the materia inside the pod. Reno reached inside and wrenched the little bauble from its wire prison. With a sound like a small rockslide, Staniv opened his palm again to receive the materia.

Mystified, Reno placed the scarlet orb on Staniv's green crystal palm.

Staniv gestured to the materia pointedly, rolling it slightly in the cup of his palm until it was plain that there was a small crack that ran down most of one side. "The crack's what you're making a big deal of, right?" Reno asked, one flaming eyebrow raised. Staniv nodded once with a slow grinding sound. He wrote four more words on the metal of the floor, then brought both his hands together and closed his eyes. His lips barely moved, but the solid rasp of speech obstructed by crystal filled the room and Vincent stiffened in an understanding he could not put into words.

Staniv placed all his energy, all his will, all his soul, into whatever it was he was doing. To Vincent, it felt like a final appeal to whoever was listening. When Staniv stopped speaking, there was none of him left. His limbs had hardened completely, the hawk-like amber of his eyes had been glossed over with the sickly green of the crystal and the red of the veins visible through his skin had faded to a deep, bruised blue.

The materia nestled in his palms glinted restfully in the light from Nanaki's tail, whole and perfect.

- - - - - - - - - -

Cloud leaned forward to pick it up, callused hands gripping it carefully as though uncertain if it would harm his flesh. Vincent stared at the last words of Staniv, mystified.

"Self. Typhon. Yuffie. Leviathan." He murmured to himself.

Reno's malachite eyes narrowed. "What the hell does that mean?"

At the same instant, Red XIII spun, low to the ground, and announced, "There is someone here." His teeth were bared in a ferocious snarl, glimmering like knives in darkness. His tail did not lash, though it quivered with the want to. He had been in too many battles to move with such uncontrolled anger when his friends stood in the path of the flame on his tail.

A low, amused chuckle echoed through the cavern and a voice called out in a Junonian drawl, "I can't believe it took you this long to notice. Though, to give you some credit, you haven't all turned on each other yet. The dragon must be losing her touch."

The members of AVALANCHE fanned out cautiously, weapons at the ready. Cloud brandished Ultima Weapon, lips thinning into a flat line. "Show yourself," he barked coldly. The other laughed again and from down near the control pods, a figure sauntered slowly up the metal ramp.

"Don't get your panties in a twist," he said breezily. "There's no point getting all worked up about it. I'm the Phoenix-Imbued, by the way. Also known as Laurent. Figure you should at least know that before you die. No point to killing someone if they don't know who you are, am I right?" Sephiroth made a small sound of disgust and the Phoenix-Imbued laughed outright. "Oh, but I forgot who I was talking to."

"What do you want?" Cloud asked patiently, though of course he already knew the answer. The Phoenix laughed again and stuck one hand on his hip, shaking his head with a rustle of locks like fallen leaves.

"You're not stupid, Strife. You know why I'm here."

There was a sudden press of air around them and Red's hackles somehow contrived to stand even higher across his shoulders, down his spine. The Phoenix-Imbued raised his hands from his sides to sit at right angles before him and with another blast of hot air there appeared around him a corona of white flame. Blinding to look at, it flared to colourless _light_ and flickered to crimson and sienna and finally set into a steady golden glow around the man's body.

He was tall and lean, skin the swarthy colour of many Junonians and made darker by the simple white drawstring pants slung low on his hips, the raggedly cut open vest with burgundy designs marching down the front on either side of the skin of his torso. Both halves of a cracked materia were set in an arrowed piece of metal attached to a heavy-looking chain. His hair was coloured to look like flame, blond at the roots and spiking up into black and scarlet points, giving the impression, when he moved, of a sea of fire swirling and flowing about his scalp. His eyes, like those of the Phoenix Summon, were a blue so bright that even with the golden light they resembled the farthest reaches of sky.

Phoenix smiled, his long, handsome face making the expression less threatening than it surely was. "Let's play," he suggested, amusement plain, and extended a hand in their direction.

Cloud, Red and Sephiroth lunged to the right, the Turks to the left, as a pillar of fire blasted towards them. Vincent jumped onto the top of the pod that had held Staniv and dropped to the ground behind it as the blast took out the top of tank S-15 and shattered Staniv's corpse into shards of molten and not-so-molten mako crystals. Reno swore loudly as he and Rude were forced to take a flying leap down onto the second tier to avoid the blast, sheltering in the lee of pods S-10 and -11.

Red XIII roared and darted away to the right again, trying to get close enough to attack the Imbued, but Phoenix lobbed smaller handfuls of flame towards him, successfully forcing the lion-like creature to keep his distance. Cloud grit his teeth and surged forward, Ultima Weapon raised to slash at the Imbued. Sephiroth followed his lead, Masamune on level with his eyes as he rushed the Junonian. The Phoenix-Imbued's cheerful demeanour cracked into a vicious grin. He screamed, voice harsh and grating as his namesake's surely was not, and thrust both palms out before him.

Two fireballs rocketed towards the swordsmen. Sephiroth dodged it neatly, losing some momentum but completing his charge with a vicious stab to the Phoenix-Imbued, who dodged the attack and flared the corona of flame that clung to his skin. Sephiroth whipped Masamune back before him, defending even as he backed towards the bottom of the ramp. Cloud, however, had not been quite so lucky. Ultima Weapon was too bulky to relocate if he dodged, so he charged straight into the face of the flame. It should not have been as painful as it was.

Cloud kept charging, but more than his skin burned in the touch of the Phoenix-flame. His very blood boiled, the flesh on his exposed arms charring immediately, the edge of the sword destroyed by the heat of the flame. Cloud cried out in pain and fury and brought Ultima Weapon down towards the Phoenix-Imbued, but the man had already moved and Cloud was burning and the sword was too hot for him to hold any more. His fingers exploded in heat so severe it froze the feeling from his fingertips for the split-second before the searing agony set in. Ultima Weapon clattered to the ground.

Reno swung himself over the top of a tank as Cloud dropped to his knees, face set in a snarl of wordless pain. The Nightstick's ominous hum had become louder, a swarm of deadly bees, wasps, anything that flew and poisoned and killed, and as Rude and Vincent moved swiftly down the ramp at the far side of the room Reno fired a bolt of electricity directly at the Phoenix-Imbued. Rude and Vincent slowed to train their guns on the Imbued and Reno yelled, "Get to the door! Get to the fucking door!"

There was a small explosion in the centre of the room and Reno was blasted top over teakettle into the pod behind him. The Turk dropped to the ground with a groan of pain and scrabbled from his Nightstick.

The Phoenix-Imbued's fiery aura lit the billowing black smoke to a dark, disgusting orange like a sunset over Midgar as he laughed, "Oh yes, please, get to the door." There was the barest of pauses before a single blast of luminously super-heated air was directed at Reno. The Turk rolled out of the way in the nick of time, turning back a moment later with a belated cry of horror. Furious malachite eyes turned to the Phoenix-Imbued.

"You bastard!"

Rude and Vincent, having reached the control pods, took shelter behind them and began to fire at the Phoenix-Imbued. The Imbued hissed in annoyance and flared his aura again, the heat ensuring that the bullets never reached him.

"Reno!" Rude bellowed, "Follow your own goddamn advice!" So saying, the Turk drew a small grenade from his jacket pocket and lobbed it at the Phoenix-Imbued, who dove to the side with a startled, "Hey!" While the Imbued was distracted, Red and Sephiroth came in close, the feline grabbing Cloud's still-cooling shoulder guard in his mouth and dragging the blond man away despite his grunt of pain. Sephiroth made defensive slashes at the Imbued, trying to keep him at bay long enough for Reno to slip away to the side and reach the door that lead back to the access ramp. As soon as Rude started firing again, Sephiroth darted away through the pods, taking a roundabout route to the door but always keeping a tank or two between himself and the Phoenix-Imbued.

Red had reached the door with Cloud and was trying to nose the man into standing and getting through the hole in the door. Reno skidded to a halt beside him. "You go first, I'll shove him through, then we run like fuck!" He shouted, perhaps less than eloquently. "Rude! Keep those grenades up!"

The bald Turk obeyed without question, flinging another grenade to the ground at the Phoenix-Imbued's feet. The man was beginning to look annoyed with the situation, but there was apparently very little he could do about the incendiary devices that were raining on his parade and Rude was quite happy to keep it that way. Beside him, Vincent's Death Penalty provided a little rain of its own, the bullets ripping into the left shoulder of the distracted Phoenix-Imbued. Laurent yelped and dove to the side as another grenade whistled through the air. Vincent reloaded the Death Penalty as though he was forming a fist or taking a piss, Rude noted with approval - the gun was just an extension of himself. It took a moment before he noted that the sharpshooter was speaking to him.

"When Reno's through, follow him. I leave last."

The gun was back at his shoulder and Vincent let fly another well-placed volley of bullets, keeping the Phoenix-Imbued dancing. Rude nodded and pulled the pin out of another grenade, sitting three of the things at Vincent's feet before he threw it. The gunman made a negative sound as he aimed again.

"Can't pull them. Throw them yourself."

Reno leapt headfirst through the hole in the door and Rude scooped the grenades into his large hands, running toward it just as Sephiroth did. The silver-haired man held up a hand, Rude threw him an unpulled grenade and they both hurled grenades in the direction of the Phoenix-Imbued, allowing Vincent time to reload. Sephiroth passed Masamune hilt-first through the hole and then dove through little more gracefully than Reno, though Rude thought he saw the swordsman roll as he landed.

There was one last grenade in Rude's hand. He pulled the pin and drew back his arm, eyes narrowed against the smoke and dust the battle was creating. He heard the Phoenix scream as the grenade descended, saw Vincent's cloak ripple as he spun and launched himself into a sprint for the door and then there was an explosion of heat like nothing a grenade could ever claim to cause and Rude was slammed backwards into the jagged agony of the hole in the door.

_Fuck,_ he thought dazedly, and passed out.

- - - - - - - - - -

Vincent reached the door with a snarl on his face, propelled half by his own legs and half by the explosion of heat behind him. He raised the claw to take the brunt of the blow as he slammed into the edge of the door, a harsh grunt beaten from him at the force of the impact. With his other hand he reached down and grabbed Rude's shoulder, hauling the man bodily against his chest.

"Reno! Take him!"

The voice barely sounded like his own, and a jolt of fear ripped through Vincent as he came to the realisation that he had relaxed his control over Chaos during the battle. The demon's fury had melded with his own, and Chaos was worming its insidious way to the surface, eager for its own taste of the battle and the Phoenix-Imbued's blood.

Reno's hands, blackened and grimy, shot through the hole in the door and clenched in the fabric of Rude's jacket, tugging him sharply towards the door again. "Lift his fucking feet, Valentine, he's already bleeding like a fucking pig!" It appeared that Reno's language degenerated even further in the heat of battle. Vincent didn't care. He grabbed Rude's legs with his hand and his claw, barely caring that the blade-like digits bit into the Turk's leg, and heaved him through the roughly hewn circle of metal, suddenly certain that the hole in the door was the Phoenix-Imbued's doing.

He turned, breathing heavily, to face the Imbued and swooped wearily to pick up the Death Penalty. The Phoenix's eyes were glowing now, an inhuman, ethereal blue that mimicked the inside of a candle flame. His arms were raised as though he could _make_ them into wings, wings of flicker-flames and sparks and rainbows. Jets of super-heated air made the floor beneath him glow and Vincent came to the tired, ponderous realisation that the other man was floating.

Phoenix swept his arms forward _For a moment he saw the wings_ and a fireball the size of one of the mako tanks sped towards Vincent _and he raised his claws and braced himself against the impact_ and he raised his pitiful, weak human arms, the metal that would burst in molten, agonising gold all over his misshapen skin **_and he screamed._**

Chaos surged and Vincent sank into cool, silent oblivion.

- - - - - - - - - -

A/N: Fuck, I hate battle scenes. Sorry to leave you at a cliffhanger like this.

Oh all right, I'm not, really.

Feel free to e-mail/review with questions if something doesn't make sense, by the way. If it's something you're meant to work out by yourself, obviously I won't answer, but if it's something I'm supposed to have covered and haven't, I'd like to know about it.

**JML** - Hee hee hee. Monty Python. Spanish Inquisition. Funny Walks. :crawls off to have her giggling fit: There's a whole fic coming up on Reno and his past. I guess you'll have to stay tuned. :grin:

**Lone Gunmen** - If you'd like, I'll make a note of your e-mail address and e-mail you myself.

**Emri** - 'Chirpy' just referred to the fact that Vincent was bouncing around a lot. (Or it felt that way to me, anyway…) You'll find out all about the dreams later, I promise.

**Griever Weapon** - :blushes profusely at praise: Oh, I _like_ you! Thanks for that.

**Seventhe** - I'm glad you like the way I'm dealing with pairings. I find that the fun's in the getting there, and not so much in the staying there. (Well, the staying there is sort of boring to write…) You're right though - I should probably change the summary a little. There are too many pairings in this fic to bother listing them all anyway.


	25. Enter the Dragon

Disclaimer: I do not own _Final Fantasy VII_ or any characters or concepts therein. I certainly do own this storyline, however. Steal it and prepare to die - painfully.

A/N: Another chapter heavy on the plot. Enjoy.

- I just watched trailer three at the official AC site. Squee. Oh, squee. I think I just died.

- Wyrren-san, this is at long last your proper introductory chapter. Enjoy.

- I know Razor Ring is actually a shuriken... but it was the only phrase I could think of to describe the Conformer. So don't be confused into thinking Yuffie was just randomly carrying around Razor Ring and switched it in the middle of a battle.

- It's time to impart a _Cowboy Bebop_ proverb. I read it in a fic somewhere. That proverb is: "Flow like water. Shoot like Faye."

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter 25: Enter the Dragon

The light, Aeris had decided, was significantly darker than she had expected it to be. Having ascended a few floors, the group had come to a thick steel door that had been conveniently propped open with a dark red steel girder. The ends of the girder were darker, as though the paint had been burned, and in some places the grey of the metal showed through where the paint had melted away entirely. Aeris glanced at this dubiously as she stepped over the girder. Something that precisely severed with heat did not inspire confidence in the Cetra.

At first, all she could see in the room they had entered was a long aisle, bordered by tall industrial shelving packed with cardboard dividers, ledgers and brightly coloured folders. Pairs of long, cylindrical light bulbs were suspended from the criss-crossing scaffold bars that made up the ceiling down the length of the aisle. Elsewhere in the room, large floodlights dangled from the scaffolding, illuminating large areas of white metal floor. Aeris trailed Lana and Cid half-heartedly out of the aisle and gazed at her surroundings unhappily. She wasn't at all fond of labs, and it seemed that they had stumbled into another one - though if the truth be told, this seemed to be more of an observation room than a real lab.

Along the wall behind her stretched the archives. Each row had a sheet of card taped to the end of the shelving - most red, but several in yellow, apparently labeling the records of a certain specimen. The rest of the room seemed taken up by dead computer monitors and control panels whose lights had long faded.

Lana, who had been one of the first to enter the enormous room, had strode purposefully past the shelves and the computers. Now at what appeared to be the far end of the room, she paused and beckoned to them, gesturing into the darkness at her back. "I think it's a gallery - where they do experiments so everyone can watch, y'know?"

Tifa jogged towards her and peered anxiously over the curved railing into the gloom. "I think you're right. I'll go down and take a look - Yuffie, Lana, you want to come with?" The ninja nodded thoughtfully. Yuffie stared around at the walls with a small frown on her face, as though she found the place equally unsettling. Tifa turned to Cid, who had come up beside her to grimace at the gallery below. "You and Elena should see if you can get any of the computers up and running - we need as much information about this place as possible." Elena gave a little laugh.

"But I don't have my bald lackey around to carry peripherals…" She whined mockingly, then grinned and waved confidently at Tifa. "You go ahead. We'll have these hunks of junk up and running in no time."

Barret snorted. "Guess I'll check out the archives with Aeris, then."

The Cetra smiled at the bear-like man and offered her arm to him jokingly. "Shall we, then? There's a lot to go through and I don't want to be down here any longer than I have to."

"You 'n' me both," Barret assured her gruffly, glancing about as though the walls had ears. Aeris wasn't sure that was far from the truth.

-

High above the flower girl, the terrorists and the Neo-Shinra, crouched on one of the many criss-crossing steel girders, there was a young woman perched in what would have been a precarious position for most humans. It was not in the least precarious for her.

With eyes the eerie gold of a poisonous reptile she observed the humans moving below her. Two, and two, and three. Her face showed nothing, but there was pleasure in Ryyu, the Bahamut-Imbued, and amusement. The foolishness of prey never ceased to amaze her. Vulnerable as they had been to begin with, they divided their forces to make her task easier still.

She would take the Cetra - Aeris, her mind supplied effortlessly - and Barret first. Ballistics could be a danger to her, after all, and if the Cetra ever realized the full potential of what she was, there would be… difficulties. Once subdued, the rest should not be a problem.

Ryyu, had she not been trained in the art of stillness and silence, would have shaken her head. So far, Titan had maintained during all of their attempts that AVALANCHE should not be a problem. Their strength was far greater than he had been willing to admit. It was a failing in her leader, but one she was prepared to accept for several reasons. The first was that Ryyu saw and understood enough of her opponents to correct the ill assessment of her master with no loss to herself. The second reason was even simpler. Titan spoke directly to the face of the Planet. Ryyu had no wish to fight the earth beneath her feet.

-

The gallery was not all that was on the lower floor of the immense room. Directly underneath the computer area on the upper level there was a smaller room devoted to samples and the remnants of experiments that scientists were unwilling to discard. While Tifa and Lana examined the instruments in the gallery itself, Yuffie approached the thick glass that divided the two areas and peered through a four-foot hole in it doubtfully. It had obviously been made with a powerful weapon of some sort, because the glass hadn't shattered, it had melted away completely.

"I'm gonna look around inside."

Tifa paused in her somewhat violent attempts to enter a locked metal cabinet. "Sure. I want to see what's in these things."

Yuffie shrugged and ducked through the hold in the glass, shuriken at the ready even though she was sure she would have seen anything the room had to hide. It wasn't large enough to offer any hiding places, and most of the cabinets inside were glass, anyway.

There were about two dozen glass display cabinets in the little room. The ones Yuffie had seen from the other side of the glass were labeled with detailed descriptions of what they contained. Yuffie was a little surprised to see that a number of the cabinets contained human body parts and, in one case, a baby, all made of crystal. She watched the fetus float in its jar of blue goo and began to feel a little bit ill, sure that crystal couldn't just _do that_. It couldn't be a baby like that, not so lifelike, not without some serious tinkering on the atomic level. Hell, she'd like to believe that sub-atomic tinkering was all that was going on here, but somehow she just didn't think so. She moved away from the baby.

The other cabinets seemed unimportant to her, blue prints for some machine or other, notes for procedures with names like "S-I-4172-M", until something red and glossy caught her eye. At the back of the room, sitting on a display shelf made of glass and with an obscure title and nonsensical notes of its own, there sat a Summon materia, neatly sawed in half. Yuffie's left hand went immediately to the pocket of her khaki shorts, where the divided Leviathan materia still lay, and she pulled it out of her pocket to compare with the materia in the case.

The edges were the same. It was the same clean divide, right down the very center of the materia, like the tiny orbs were incubating some anal-retentive little creature with a laser-scalpel… or something. Yuffie frowned and shoved her Leviathan back into her pocket. Then she fisted her hand and punched straight through the glass with a cry of, "Ka!"

It hurt her knuckles a little, but some idiot had made the cabinet of shatterproof so she didn't even get shards of it in her hand. With a grin she used one point of the Conformer to chip away at the double-layered glass until she'd broken a hole, then snaked her hand through and grabbed the materia. Not the most subtle of robberies, she thought with a small grimace, noting a small flashing red light in the opposite corner of the cabinet. No doubt somewhere an alarm was shrieking. Still, it didn't look like anyone had been down here for years, and she wanted a better look at this materia.

This train of thought was abruptly cut off by two gunshots from right above her head.

Yuffie froze and shoved the materia into her pocket, slithering between the display cabinets and out into the gallery area, where Tifa and Lana stood warily watching the railing above. "Elena?" Tifa hazarded, clenching her fists. The only sound from above was a wheezing cough - Cid. Yuffie caught Lana's eye and put a finger to her lips to signify she would wait where she was.

She didn't have to wait very long. With a sound like a badly made shamisen, Tifa and Lana were enveloped suddenly in a cloud of fine white powder. Yuffie tensed and, as a darkly-clad and surprisingly short shadow dropped from the railing above, she yelled, "DON'T BREATHE!"

The figure whirled to face her and stood so quickly it almost looked as though she had prepared to jump up high. She had dark hair, most of it slicked back into a horse-tail that looked more like a whip hanging down her spine. Her skin was the tawny gold of Wutai, but all that could be seen of it was the upper half of her face. She was clad from head to toe in dark grey leather, a black Wutaian dragon twisting up her left leg to coil around her hips and appear rampant across her back. Her gloves and boots were black and made of a softer, more pliable material that appeared no less thick and protective. A half-mask of some blackened metal covered the lower half of her face, but what caught Yuffie's attention were the eyes.

They were fierce and golden, brighter by far than Reeve's amber or even Nanaki's single glowing orb, and slit-pupilled like Sephiroth's. They weren't the eyes of a human. They were more like the eyes of a snake, cold and blank. Yuffie knew, looking at those eyes, that she hadn't surprised the woman at all by staying in the shadows. The woman had known precisely where she was. Yuffie's grip on the Conformer tightened. She _hated_ to be predicted.

They stayed frozen like that for a few moments more. Yuffie knew she couldn't risk a direct attack without knowing more about her opponent. She crouched a little and bounced a few times on the balls of her feet. Though in her day to day life she was impatient and brattish, in battle her ways changed dramatically. In battle, she could wait forever if she had to.

Tifa and Lana didn't seem to be moving either. Yuffie supposed that they had breathed after all, and the powder had induced paralysis. That meant she couldn't wait for long. She let her lips curve in her trademark cheeky smile and reached out her hand with a beckoning motion.

"Come on, now, I don't have all day to deal with a wiener like you. Heh, I guess you can't handle a fight without something as cowardly as poison... can't afford a less trashy outfit, either, huh." Yuffie grinned nastily at the woman. "And here I thought the Imbued deserved respect."

The woman's blank eyes did not falter, nor did her stance. It seemed she couldn't be baited into moving first. Yuffie felt a brief moment of disappointment. Most people reacted to her taunts at least a little bit, but this one hadn't budged an inch. It made the ninja doubly wary of her opponent, but she had no choice but to attack first. If the poison was lethal or permanently crippling, she needed to get an antidote administered to her friends as soon as possible, and that just wasn't going to happen with short, dark and scary over there.

Yuffie darted to the left and flung her Conformer in a great arc to the right. The Imbued, whoever she was, called the bluff and side-stepped, blocking the punches Yuffie threw and attacking with short, delicate movements of her own, all of which Yuffie knew would be deadly if they connected. So, naturally, she didn't let them connect, dipping and ducking and drawing back for the split-second it took to snag the Conformer out of the air. There was a brief pause and Yuffie let out the breath she had taken before attacking. It wasn't that she'd been holding it. The Imbued was just that fast.

"So what exactly is in that magic dust of yours?" Yuffie asked flippantly, eyes hard. This time the Imbued did reply, her voice ringing and distorted by the metal mask she wore.

"You should be more concerned about its effects." These were easy punches to dodge, easy kicks to block. Yuffie knew what the other woman was trying to do, and it wouldn't work with her. "After all, Highwind's lungs aren't the healthiest of fleshbags. I'm sure it would be a danger to him if they were to become irritated."

Yuffie scowled. She started to move faster.

"Can't you imagine it, Kisaragi? Lungs tar-slick... red and raw... it won't be long before he's coughing blood." As though to punctuate the words in the otherwise silent laboratory, Yuffie heard a retching sound from above. Cid, still coughing and hacking as though he'd never stop. She hated the sound of it. _Goddammit, who the hell breathes in some unknown powder anyway!_

"Yeah, well, Cid's a tough old bastard. It'll take more than a little fairy dust to take him down... and that sort of trick won't work on _me_."

It became a sort of dance: Yuffie sliced methodically at the air with her shuriken and the Imbued made guarded attempts to break through the bladed whirlwind of blows. Using the shuriken made the battle more dangerous for the other party, for there was no way to get inside its range without piercing Yuffie's own skin. She could almost meld it against her skin, so quickly could she spin and shift the brightly coloured razor ring. It was like a bladed nanchaku, a double-edged sword, but Yuffie had been trained with the weapon since her mother had died. She knew precisely how to wield it to her advantage.

The Imbued began, slowly and almost imperceptibly, to give ground.

-

Ryyu was not smiling behind her half-mask, but she confessed herself well amused. Titan had predicted wrongly yet again: the ninja was more skilled by far than he had expected. She knew it would be so. Leviathan had been no slouch, despite his age, and Ryyu was aware of the girl's victory over her father long before the man was Imbued with the power of Wutai's favourite god. Leviathan's daughter was stronger than she appeared, faster than she appeared, and unpredictable as the ocean.

It made her wonder.

Leviathan, for all his training, had not moved so. For all his power and grace and the melding of his body with the mind of his god, he had never flowed the way his daughter seemed to do.

Ryyu saw, with a slight tugging of disappointment, that this way was useless. Distracted as she currently was, holding the other six humans still within her mind, Yuffie and herself were too evenly matched. To defeat the girl, she would have to call the dragon's true power... but that took time and concentration. If she let go of the others, she would not have the time. If she did not, she would not have the concentration.

From stories below her she heard an ominous rumble and felt with a tendril of awareness the shock and agony of Laurent, burned by the power of his own flame.

This day, she saw, was not fortuitous for them.

-

Yuffie twirled the Conformer defensively before her as the Imbued crouched suddenly and jumped up into the air. Expecting a flying kick of some sort, Yuffie lifted the shuriken to follow the movement and defend with it. What she saw was not what she expected to see.

The Imbued did not appear to be coming down. She just continued to rise, at the same speed she had jumped. Yuffie watched her, eyes wide, as she vanished into the darkness above the lighting arrangements of the lab. Beside the ninja, Tifa and Lana went as suddenly limp as though their strings had been cut. Tifa dropped to her knees before she caught herself; Lana merely sagged sideways a little and then steadied. Yuffie watched what she could see of the ceiling, but it didn't look like the Imbued was coming back.

"Are you both all right?"

Tifa cleared her throat a few times and then whispered, "Yes." She pushed herself uneasily to her feet and said, "It wasn't the dust that paralyzed me, it was her. She was in my head, Yuffie."

"Mine, too. And everyone else's, if what she said is anything to go by." Lana's knuckles were pale on the butt of her rifle.

"Not mine. The powder must be a relaxant." Yuffie continued to stare at the darkness of the ceiling as the floor beneath their feet began to tremble. "Let's get out of here. She's not done with us yet."

-

Reno grabbed Rude's body and ran like there were five hundred Scarlets behind him, regardless of the fact that his best friend could have bench-pressed him and therefore weighed in similarly to a mako reactor. He had barely reached the first turn of the corridor when the hatch door exploded violently, knocking him to the ground and filling the ramp way with suffocating heat. He rolled over and his first thought was, _fuck, I'm dead._

Then, over the dull roar of the flames and the destruction and the quaking of the metal beneath his feet, he heard another sound that stopped him in his tracks.

Valentine was screaming. His back was to Reno, but his arms were flung wide as he was forced backward along the corridor by the massive ball of fire that had destroyed the door. It didn't touch him, though it flickered occasionally past his shoulders and around his waist as though it was trying to. The tattered red cape swirled and trembled in the vicious heat as Valentine's iron boots squealed against the floor, but even that was drowned out by the rawness of the man's screaming.

No, that wasn't right. Reno had heard plenty of men scream in his time, but that wasn't a sound men made. That sound wasn't even human. That was the sound of a beast, a monster, forced to be vicious, forced to be lethal and terrifying. Reno stared, transfixed, and several lengthy seconds passed. Then Vincent shoved his arms forward into the center of the fireball.

Only his arms didn't burn and char away. Instead, it was the fireball that was repelled, back into the cavern beyond the hatch door. Valentine whirled to face the Turk as once again, the pod room exploded into flame.

As the second explosion took place, Rude groaned a little, but Reno was too shocked to shield his face or pay attention to his friend. He was too busy staring at Valentine.

His eyes were flooded scarlet.

-

Vincent felt hot metal beneath his hands, metal that bucked and trembled, and stared in surprise at it. This was not where he had been, moments ago. He looked up from the burning metal that hurt his human hand and found Reno staring at him. He opened his mouth. Vincent beat him to the punch.

"Move!"

He shoved himself violently away from the floor and grabbed at the back of Rude's suit. Reno scrambled to his feet and hoisted his friend a little more gently. Rude groaned a little more coherently and squinted at them for about half a second before Vincent said, "Help me," and wrapped his human arm tightly about the tall man's back. Reno did the same, slinging Rude's arm over his shoulders. They ran, Reno's shoes slipping in the mako at the edge of the walkway, Vincent leading them as fast as he could.

He was tired, so tired, but he couldn't stop yet. He couldn't stop running yet. The Imbued... he'd said... Vincent gave up on the thought, concentrating all his energy on running. The rhythmic clanking of his boots upon the shuddering of the metal beneath them set a beat to which he could move and rely upon. Even shouts from the ramp above them did not shake his concentration until his eyes found Cloud's and then he found the thought that had been eluding him: _The Imbued had mentioned a dragon._

Cloud caught Vincent by the shoulders and the red-cloaked man said, "There's another Imbued above. The others..."

He nearly dropped Rude trying to pass his weight to Cloud. The blond man took him readily. "You and Sephiroth are fastest - go help the others and get to the elevator as soon as you can."

Vincent and Sephiroth didn't even bother to nod.

-

Sephiroth ran, braid streaming out behind him. He thought it a mark of the Cetra's skill that even in the heat of battle with a powerful adversary, not a strand had broken free. Valentine had not fared nearly as well. As fast as they ran, Sephiroth could still smell the stench of burned hair. And there was something else... he wasn't sure if he could truly smell it or merely sense the presence, but all was not well with the ex-Turk. Sephiroth's eyes narrowed as they reached the fourth turn on the ramp way.

_Three to go, then the hallway._

A grating sound and then a click, soft but still noticeable, made Sephiroth focus even more keenly on Vincent's presence. Slitted green eyes slid to the right and widened a little. Vincent was loading a handgun.

"What are you doing, Valentine? You'll never take out an Imbued with that."

Vincent's eyes met Sephiroth's and for a second the swordsman couldn't see the pupil. "The Death Penalty has been destroyed. At present, my only other option is this." He held up his claw pointedly. "I am agile, but not especially skilled at close range combat."

Sephiroth snorted - he very much doubted this. The man had been a Turk. The Turks, particularly those of Valentine's generation, were skilled in most every kind of combat. Still, it was not up to him to doubt Valentine's assessment of himself. For one thing, at the moment, he didn't have the time.

_Last turn ahead. Then to the top floor._

He swung around the final hairpin curve in the ramp, ricocheting from the concrete walls to make the turn quickly. The tip of the Masamune screeched briefly along the edge of the walkway and Sephiroth pulled further from the wall, silver brows lowering.

_The dragon… a Bahamut. But which one?_

He broke out of the enclosed ramp and into the hall that lead to the elevator, swung around once more to ascend to the upper lab and nearly crashed into Tifa. The Masamune was at shoulder level and directed for the woman's throat before he recognised her. For her part the martial artist had raised her fists in preparation to strike at him. They stared at each other for a split second before Tifa blurted, "What happened to Cloud?"

Vincent had caught himself just before colliding with Sephiroth, iron-toed boots screeching mournfully on the floor. "On his way." He eyed her expectantly and Tifa gestured to the elevator with her glove as Lana, Barret and Aeris rounded the corner and slowed.

"Get to the elevator!" She turned Sephiroth roughly and set off at a run into the darkness that preceded the elevator. Vincent matched her pace and she explained as she ran. "We were attacked by an Imbued - I've no idea which one - she paralysed everyone but Yuffie - some sort of powder, Cid's lungs are pretty bad - Yuffie held her off," It all came out between gasps for breath. "We felt - we heard - what happened to you?"

Vincent's answer was concise. "We found Staniv and were attacked by the Phoenix-Imbued. Only Rude is badly injured. You felt an explosion."

Tifa's eyes were wide. "Staniv... is he," Vincent shook his head, raven locks flying everywhere. She looked saddened for a moment, but then her expression steeled. "There's no time for this right now. We'll get out of here and then we'll talk about it." She focused on the tiny glowing panel in the distance, this one red, and bit her lip a little awkwardly.

"What about Cloud?" It was a hushed question, as though she was almost embarrassed to be asking it of Vincent. Though she could not see them, the gunman's eyes dropped closed for a second.

"He was burned, but not fatally. He will recover."

Tifa suppressed the immediate urge to turn around and dash back to Cloud's side, then quirked an unseen eyebrow at Vincent. "I hate to think what happened - to poor Rude if something - you had to dub 'non-fatal' - didn't count in the injury department!"

From behind them in the dark, Elena's voice came shrilly over the metallic thunder of running footsteps. "Rude's hurt?" Her feet stopped and there was a cry of annoyance from Yuffie as the Turk abruptly stopped supporting the pilot. "I'm sorry - I gotta go back."

"Hey, come back here Turkey!" Yuffie hollered. "Dammit, don't you just leave me to carry the fat old man by myself!"

Cid tried to retort and started coughing again. Barret dropped back to help Yuffie with his weight and muttered, "Don't try t' talk, foo', and don't listen t' the brat, neither."

"Oh _thankyou_, Yuffie - _Queen_ Yuffie - for _totally_ saving my _big, ungrateful butt._ I will _love_ and _worship_ you for the rest of my miserable life! I will cut off the arm that doesn't shoot things and dedicate it to _you!_" The voice was a much-put-upon whine. "Next time I'll just keep my damn Remedies all for myself!"

Tifa smiled at this, though she wished she could make like Elena and go back to help Cloud. The little red square was almost close enough to touch. Just a few more dozen feet and she could call the elevator. She reached out for the glowing panel, touched the wall below it-

There was no call button. She let out a ragged gasp of disappointment and patted her hands frantically down the smooth concrete column above and below the panel, then the column on the other side of the closed glass security doors. No button.

"What's wrong?" Lana demanded as Tifa crouched and pressed her face to the glass. Dimly on the other side, she could see rock wall, braced with the red-painted metal of the lift shaft. Tifa felt as though she'd been sucker-punched. She slammed a hand angrily into the glass before she found her voice to reply.

"The elevator isn't here. There's no call button."

Silence echoed in the corridor.

"We're stuck here."

-

A/N: There we go. It's kind of amazing how quickly the pages come with Yuffie's perspective. I was sitting at a page and a half and then Yuffie started talking and suddenly I had six pages almost before I blinked. ; Another action chapter, another cliffhanger... and the next chapter isn't much different. Like I say - we'll return to fluff after these 'brief' battle scenes. ;P

Well, Vincent's lost the Death Penalty. I loved that gun. You don't know how sad it made me to realize there was no way he could have held onto it during the fireball-deflecting scene.

**Emri** - Um. :stares from Phoenix to Rude to the grenades: Because I didn't think of that. Er. I mean, these are _special_ grenades. And _he_ didn't think of that. Because he's… um… slow:sweatdrops and beats her head against her wall: Actually, that's a perfectly legitimate excuse, now that I think about it. He _wouldn't _have thought of it. My dear Phoenix is a fast talker, but not much in the brains department.

**Lorok** - Your question is answered. Bahamut, or at least the Bahamut-Imbued, is a girl. Technically, Leviathan should be female, too, (according to… well, SOME chapter in the Bible or the Q'uran or something, the male Leviathan got taken away because two Leviathans would have totally sucked for the ocean) but he's always referred to as the Water God in FFVII so I decided to keep him male. Interesting as a female Leviathan would be, if I went by Bible lore I'd have to then make Behemoth an escaped Summon. Since there's more than one Behemoth, that would be a silly thing to do, because... well, the materia thing just doesn't work that way. P I'll explain that better later in the story.

**Me/Nambe** - Actually, I really like math. I'd study it pure if I didn't think my brain would twist inside out and start doing the polka in my skull.

**Darkavalanche** - Okay, Sephiroth-Sephiroth (as in, the one who is walking around, revived, in this fic) is the Sephiroth who was frozen in mako. The _real_ Sephiroth, if you want to look at it like that. However, just as he had ties to Cloud and to Jenova, Sephiroth has ties to his clones. He knows what they were up to, and they are all technically a part of him. So really, he _did_ kill Aeris. Just not quite so directly as usual.

**Kit Thespian** - In response to your language complaint... I can't claim to be in any way supportive of Christianity (except of an imaginary section of the Roman-Catholic Church). I can only assume it was Reno who said that. In any case, I'm sorry you feel that way, but I'm not about to censor the way I feel a character _speaks_ to please the multitudes. (If I were to do that, I'd certainly be more concerned with vocal grammar!) I really don't think you can alter a character because it might offend people. Otherwise... well, you end up with characters like Zoicite of Sailor Moon, who was made female in the dub in order to avoid televisation of shounen-ai, and I think that's silly. :feels like she's ranting: Anyway, what I _actually_ wanted to say here was, thankyou very much for all of your reviews! I like reading your comments as you progress through the story. ) I do hope you'll keeo reading.

Thankyou to everyone who reviewed! 30+ for one chapter - how loved do I feel right now?


	26. Elevator Action, Part I

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII. I do own the Imbued, Feather, Lana and this storyline.

A/N: Still more action. Title was stolen from my much-beloved _Hellsing_ - an Order in the fourth manga.

JML, thanks for pointing the fourth trailer out to me. It took a while, and it's terribly pixellated, but I've seen it. Vincent seems to talk a bit too quickly, but I guess he was either hurrying or it's the Turk in him - brisk and business-like. lovesick sigh lol, and it turns out I've been pronouncing Reno wrong! T.T Not fair. Better than a spelling error, however.

I really wish FFNet's upload system would stop getting rid of spacer characters, underscores, hyphens and the like. It's really annoying. I do my best even with vanishing punctuation, but if you do notice some thing conspicuously absent, please leave me a review and tell me so!

That said, enjoy the chapter.

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter 26: Elevator Action, Part I

Elena's breath rasped and burned in her throat as she ran and the balls of her feet ached dully every time they struck the floor, but her step stubbornly refused to falter. If Rude was injured, then the Turks needed her. There was no room to think about pain if ignoring it would not slow her down. She narrowed cinnamon eyes at vague impressions of light reflecting from metal walls and walkways up ahead, increasing her pace.

The source of the light came slowly into view and Elena gasped at the unexpected brightness - it could only be Cait Sith; Red's tail just didn't project light like that. For a few seconds she couldn't see anything but the pinpoint of light in the darkness, but then shadowy figures came into view behind the light and she heard Cait's high-pitched voice echo down the corridor.

"Elena's up ahead. Yo, girlfriend!"

Elena snorted and slowed as she neared them. "Anyone in pursuit? How can I help?"

Reno and Cloud were supporting Rude, though the bald man was trying to walk a little by himself. He swayed dizzily in place when Reno stopped short. "Good to see ya, 'Laney - grab his other shoulder, would ya? Strife ain't exactly dandy."

Elena moved past Cait Sith to take Cloud's place on Rude's right shoulder. "Hiya, Rude. How're you doing?" Rude's eyes slid dazedly toward her and she bit her lip. It frightened her to see Rude this out of it. He'd always been the calm, untouchable one.

Tseng had seemed untouchable, too.

She turned her face to look ahead, so Rude wouldn't see the worry in her eyes. Cloud walked ahead, arms held carefully up in front of his chest. His sword was gone, and now she came to think of it, she hadn't seen Vincent's Death Penalty on him, either. What exactly had happened to them? She hadn't heard all of Vincent's murmured report, only Tifa's more emphatic declarations.

"Reno, what the hell happened to you down there?"

The redhead snorted. "Hey, who's junior here? What happened upstairs?"

Elena fought with the urge to declare that she had asked first, then gave up and started speaking. "We found a lab and were investigating various areas when we were attacked by an unknown Imbued. Everyone except Yuffie was caught off-guard," strange how reluctant she was to say that, "and paralysed with some sort of powder. Yuffie fought the Imbued until a tremor became noticeable, at which point the Imbued retreated."

"Description." Reno ordered tersely. "Did you recognise her?"

"No, sir." Elena took a breath. "Imbued was no taller than I am, Wutaian, sleekly muscular. Dressed in blacks and greys - green hues for lower visibility. Ninja, complete with half-mask and shuriken. She had amber eyes, too. They glowed like they were mako-enhanced, but I presume that's due to the Imbuing process."

There was a pause as Reno digested this. Then silence. Then Elena said, "Hey, it's _your_ turn! What happened!"

Cloud spoke instead of Reno. "Similar story. We were in the process of investigating the pod room down below when we were attacked by the Phoenix-Imbued. None of this matters now. What we really have to do is get to safety. All information that doesn't relate directly to weaknesses of the Imbued we've faced can wait."

Elena pursed her lips. "Only Yuffie could tell you about that. I was… stuck."

Cloud grimaced. "I can relate."

From behind them, Red cleared his throat. Elena jumped. She'd all but forgotten he was there. "The Phoenix-Imbued was able to levitate, and also to call and propel fire with his hands. He seemed as susceptible to explosions as any other person, though, so I cannot assume he is impervious to the element of the Phoenix. He had no shielding method other than heat that he displayed."

Cait Sith's voice rang out ahead of them once again, breaking the dubious silence that had fallen following Red's assessment of their mutual opponent. "Well, if it isn't the grumpy old men. Hiya!"

Barret turned and Cid turned with him, clutched tightly in the black man's good arm. Barret nodded to Cloud, but didn't respond to Cait Sith - unusual, given the robotic cat's choice of greeting. Elena could almost see Cloud's back stiffen in concern.

"What's gone wrong?" He asked, voice calm and expectant. Tifa pushed between Yuffie and Aeris, obviously fretting about the situation, but glad to see Cloud all in one piece.

"The elevator has no call button. We have to climb to the top."

* * *

It was one of the most disheartening things Cloud had ever heard. His arms, blistered and weeping, hurt more than any injury he'd ever had before, and soon he would have to use them to climb. It just wasn't fair.

He didn't let this show on his face as he walked Tifa slowly back toward the elevator shaft. The doors were open, locked into place by Sephiroth, who had apparently infiltrated buildings through elevator shafts before. Or tried to escape from them, Cloud added mentally with a grimace and a slight shiver of disgust.

Tifa was running her fingers along her belt as she spoke to him, informing him of Sephiroth's estimations of the elevator shaft and what the best way to scale it would be. Then she grabbed him by the front of his bracer and jerked him to a standstill.

"Your arms need healing," she told him stubbornly when he started to ask her what she was doing. "Especially if we're going to have to climb. Give me your arms, Cloud."

Staring at her face in the dimness, Cloud became suddenly aware of how much he loved seeing determination in her eyes, for whatever reason. He grinned sheepishly to himself and held out his arms gingerly. "Yes, ma'am." Tifa's smile was brief and tight in the darkness, but genuine.

"Cure3…" It was barely a breath, but the pain abated instantly and his flesh smoothed a little, most of the damage fading away into scar tissue. She frowned a little. "I don't want to rely on magic too much - the skin won't grow back properly."

Cloud flexed his arms tentatively and then offered Tifa a satisfied sort of lopsided grin. "That's okay. This is much better than they were. Thanks a bunch, Teef."

Her gentle smile warmed him right to the tips of his toes, erasing the doom-chill of the corridor and the battles they had faced. He berated himself very briefly for enjoying something like her smile in a situation like this, but he couldn't help it. Tifa's smile had always managed to make him writhe in happiness, even if only a little, in the back of his head.

Brushing fond thoughts from his mind, Cloud turned to face the rest of the group. Yuffie stood by Aeris, her face set in stern contrast to the softer, less confident features of the flower girl. Sephiroth was behind them, alternately eyeing the blackness of the opposite end of the corridor and the lift shaft. The Turks tended to Rude as best they could, Elena's movements unusually gentle as she coaxed him into drinking an X-Potion - they tried not to use materia if they could help it, he remembered. Lana had crouched beside Red XIII, presumably pumping him for information on the Phoenix-Imbued. Cait Sith was pestering Cid and Barret - Cloud wondered if he should do something about that, and shrugged it off. He was lightening the mood; let him. Vincent stood off to the side, as usual, though the pinpricks of his eyes seemed a little dimmer than usual.

"All right, people," Cloud called authoritatively, and had a split-second's stage fright as twelve people turned to him at once. "We have to climb that elevator shaft to get out of here. It shouldn't take us more than half an hour if we keep up a decent pace. I know it'll be difficult, but I'm positive we can handle it."

* * *

Although she could almost feel the groan that ran through the rest of the group, Yuffie felt just a little happier about the situation. Climbing was something she was good at; it was something she could _do_. She'd spent most of her life scurrying over rooftops, scaling the trees that backed onto the Temple of the Five Mighty Gods just so she could get chased away, giggling, by a furious and red-faced Staniv. He'd always taken everything so seriously, she remembered with a faint smile. And he'd take things seriously again - she was going to rescue him if it was the last damn thing she did. The damn Imbued wouldn't know what hit them.

Yuffie started stretching, carefully warming her limbs for the climb as the rest of the group prepared themselves for the climb. The Turks were removing their jackets and shoes, Reno also taking off his scruffy dress shirt to reveal the singlet and shoulder holster he wore beneath it. He was obviously no stranger to how climbing worked, either; Yuffie presumed the knowledge came ill-gotten from a childhood of robbing people blind in the slums. Aeris had tied her long skirt off, the large cloth double-knot dangling to brush the backs of her thighs. The poor flower girl was trying to laugh it off, but Yuffie knew she didn't like to have so much of her legs showing. Aeris, despite occasional lewd comments, was far too modest for such a thing to appeal to her.

Rude, still slightly unsteady, had declined to carry Cid's weight as well as his own. He didn't quite trust his arms, and he wasn't prepared to take the responsibility. Sephiroth was the next choice, so soon the pilot had been strapped firmly to the swordsman's back, his feet dangling too many inches from the ground for his liking. Yuffie wanted to go pinch his cheeks - it wasn't an opportunity she thought she'd get ever again, and Sephiroth probably wouldn't reprimand her for it. But just the same, Cid's lungs had already been destroyed enough by years of chain-smoking. Whatever the woman she had fought had used as a paralysis drug had already worsened things deep in Cid's ribcage - Yuffie didn't want to antagonise his lungs any further by making him swear at her until he choked on his own tongue.

Cloud was organising a climbing order - which, Yuffie was displeased to note, seemed to start with girls and end with big, manly men. She snorted and waved her hand when Cloud placed her just behind Aeris and Tifa at the head of the climbing line. "Hey, what are you putting me up there for? I'm not going to need anyone to catch me. In fact, I'd be more use down the bottom, catching other people."

Cloud pursed his lips. "Yuffie, I know you're strong, but-"

Yuffie quirked her eyebrows, striding over to Cait Sith and handing him the Conformer. "You want proof, Spike? Climb right on up that girder, thirty feet, and then wait 'til I'm fifteen feet up. After that, yell when you start falling. I'll catch you." A cocky smile had curved her lips. Maybe she sounded a little conceited, but Cloud's underestimation had been insulting enough to warrant the haughty tone. Cloud regarded her dubiously for a moment, then sighed.

"Come on then..." It was with a resigned tone that Cloud hauled himself up thirty feet of cold steel. Yuffie kept her eyes focussed on the girder, not trying to watch Cloud. The shaft was far too dark for that.

She heard a sharp cry from above as Cloud let go of the 'ladder'. Only then did she allow her eyes to stray from her hands. In less than a second, she flung herself backward, eyes on the fast-approaching Cloud, grabbing him roughly by his wrists as he passed and - to Cloud's great surprise - bending backwards as easily as a liquorice strap. She slammed his hands into the girder just a foot or so below where her feet and calves were now entwined with the intersecting metal bars, felt his hands grip instinctively, and relaxed her legs. They slithered from their previously rock-solid position around the girder, flipping her around in mid-air. She slammed into Cloud's back with her thighs spread - she reminded herself never to do this with Reno - and wove her feet and calves back into the girders.

Yuffie hadn't moved down more than six feet.

Pressed firmly into the girder by her pelvis, Cloud exhaled and, carefully, let go of the girder again. He didn't move, though Yuffie made a small sound of annoyance.

"Listen, bucko, just because I can take your weight and speed and turn it against you doesn't mean I can hold your ass with mine forever! Grab steel already!"

Thus did the climb begin.

* * *

Reeve, sitting in front of a mixture of his old workstation and Elena's newest, shiniest electrical equipment, was feeling a little nostalgic. He'd really enjoyed being Cait Sith all those years ago - it had taken a lot of effort to be the bouncy, robotic cat sometimes, and coming up with fortunes was a doozy, but it was probably the most fun he'd ever had on a job. Except for that one time they'd let him repair the system that monitored the eight reactors; now _that_ had been something!

Feather sat beside him, similarly melancholy, but presumably for different reasons. She didn't seem like the kind of person who could sit and fiddle with a switchboard for hours on end. Instead, she had resorted to her old habit of running the white feather through her fingers as she thought, apple green eyes vacant. Reeve shook his head at her.

"Whatcha thinking 'bout back there?" He asked, still trying to get an audio on Cait Sith. His instruments knew that Cait was rising very slowly - slower than he'd descended, anyway - and still about seven-five-oh meters underground, but he'd been unable to contact the robot via radio since they'd gone two hundred meters subterranean. It was disappointing to realise how weak his radio connection was, despite all the improvements he'd made to this model.

Feather sighed softly and blinked. "There's movement below. I can feel it."

Reeve frowned. Cait had recorded a tremor a little while ago, but nothing that would be felt above ground. "What sort of movement?"

Feather tilted her head and widened her eyes at him, as though surprised he didn't know. "Them. The Imbued. The gods are awake, below the ground. There are three of them."

* * *

They were three hundred meters up and Tifa's arms were aching. Climbing wasn't something she was used to - powerful as her shoulders were, it was an entirely different use of her muscles. Though climbing this far hadn't really been a problem, she was going to have to call for a rest stop at the five hundred meter mark.

Not that she'd be the only one, she thought with a smile and a brief glance at everything higher than her hands on brick-red metal. Their climbing order was the best they could have done, given the circumstances - those unable to catch and most likely to fall went in front, with those able to catch and less likely to fall at the end of the queue. Tifa was third in line, with Aeris and Elena ahead of her. Behind her was Lana, followed by Barret, then Cloud, Rude, Reno and Yuffie. Sephiroth, with Cid dangling from his back, struggled gamely upward just ahead of Vincent, who - if all else failed - had wings.

They were spaced about five meters apart, which Tifa was kind of happy with, given the shortness of her skirt. There were some things she was sure that Lana didn't want to see. In true darkness, closeness wouldn't have been a problem. However, in order to give the climbers some light - and to get Red XIII up the lift shaft - the lion-like creature had been roped to the body of Cait Sith's moogle, which struggled upward at a pace similar to that of the climbers. His tail lit their way, though Tifa wasn't sure how much help it really was - the light made the shadows deeper, and when it flickered she wasn't sure where she should really place her hand.

It was kind of amazing that Cait's moogle was managing at all, now that she thought about it. The bulbous body of the robot didn't seem as though it should be able to fly, especially not with those tiny little wings, but it appeared Reeve was a better designer than she gave him credit for. Cait was carrying Red XIII, but within the belly of the moogle were also stored the discarded clothes and weapons of the group for the duration of the climb. Cait was easily bearing his own body weight again, but didn't seem to be showing any signs of stress.

_I guess Shinra manufacturing was good at something_, Tifa thought, and then shook her head with a smile. _Or, more likely, Reeve went elsewhere to get the parts he needed. Yeah, that sounds more like it._

From up ahead, Aeris let out a small sound of shock and fear and everyone froze. Elena's voice rang in the darkness. "Are you okay?"

Aeris' voice was trembling just a little when she answered. "Yes. Yes, I'm fine. I missed a step, is all." There was a quiet, hitching exhalation of breath as she clung briefly to her position and then started upward again. "I'm going to stop at the next platform and rest a few minutes."

The platform she spoke of was not really a platform at all, merely a crossbeam that followed the contour of the rock wall and provided additional support for the four girders that bordered the elevator shaft. It was wide enough to sit or stand on - even walk across. But every time they stopped, they had to switch to the opposite side of the shaft - there wasn't room to walk past other people back along the support beam. It wouldn't be an issue until they reached the top and really knew where the hatch that lead into the lift cage was.

They stopped for a little while, legs dangling into the darkness. Cait's moogle clung to one of the girders so that Red XIII could work some feeling back into his limbs and have his bipedal friends move the ropes a little so that they didn't cut into his sides quite so much. Tifa could tell Aeris was more than happy to take her mind off their height and concentrate on something else for a few minutes.

There was muted conversation - Reno tried to joke with Rude, who was just looking at him a little tiredly. On the redhead's other side sat Yuffie, busily massaging her forearms and rolling her shoulders to keep them limber for the rest of the climb. Vincent had switched places with Sephiroth so that the silver-haired man could sit sideways on the support-beam, allowing Cid to face his friends for a brief time - not that Vincent spoke much at the best of times, and he seemed too tired for conversation today. Tifa supposed that the battle against the Phoenix-Imbued had played out more harshly than Cloud had mentioned.

Aeris, finished with Red's ropes, stared skyward and sighed uneasily, rubbing her bare arms. Tifa leaned across Elena and grabbed her hand. "Hey. Are you sure you're all right?"

Aeris smiled at her, and squeezed her hand. The other scrunched fitfully in Red's mane. "I'm fine. This place doesn't feel right. That's all it is. It's as though there's something wrong, here." She looked ahead, up into the blackness of the shaft they had yet to climb and shivered. "There's always something wrong, in the old Shinra buildings. Too much evil. It lingers, in places like this."

Elena snorted and, to Tifa's surprise, leaned her head against Aeris' shoulder. "Well, flower girl, Shinra and Midgar've been sick a long time. But we're getting better. Maybe all that wrongness will evaporate one day."

"I hope so." Aeris murmured quietly. Then, shaking off her sadness as suddenly as it had arrived, she pushed herself a little away from the wall and leaned out as far as she dared to call to Cloud. "I'm ready to keep moving, if everyone else is."

Cloud nodded. "Everyone?"

There was a weary chorus of agreement. Vincent slipped forward over the edge of the support beam and swung to his right, onto the girder they had been climbing before, so that Sephiroth would be able to turn and walk along the support beam to their new 'ladder'. In fact, Yuffie had to tug Cid along, Sephiroth walking uneasily backward, until they reached the girder that had divided the group in two while they rested. Then Yuffie and Vincent helped the silver-haired man go around the girder - still backwards - so that he would be facing the right way on the other side.

By this time, Tifa was high above them, once again picking out the best hand and footholds from the zigzagging, criss-crossing pattern the smaller steel bars made across the scaffold-like bracers of the shaft. It wasn't a difficult pattern to fall into; the crossbars were regular enough. Every two meters or so, there was a double horizontal bar - Tifa had grown used to this apparent irregularity on the way, so it no longer bothered her. Still, from above she could hear Aeris' little gasps as she continued to falter, more and more often, it seemed, until once again she let out a small shriek and slid down the girder a few feet before she gained a hold on it again.

Elena's quiet explosion of profanity was probably what prompted the laugh that sounded behind Tifa, but the expression of surprise on the faces of the climbers when they all twisted near-simultaneously to look at the laugher probably helped continue it.

On the other side of the lift shaft, bathed in the flickering light from Nanaki's tail, a man with a spiky mane of hair the colour of fire leaned against the wall, shoulders shaking a little with the force of his chuckles. Tifa froze in place at Cloud's muttered warning, and started to sweat.

"Phoenix-Imbued."

* * *

The Phoenix-Imbued had found it difficult to maintain his position for so long without drawing attention to himself, particularly when they had all paused for rest. Phoenix was not modest. He was flamboyant as only a god who rose from the ashes of his own body could be. His spirit burned brighter than that of any mere human. So sitting quietly, thirty feet below his prey, was not something that the Phoenix-Imbued felt comfortable doing.

But Dragonlady, as he affectionately referred to the Bahamut-Imbued in his mind, had ordered him to stay put until she had made it back topside. Once there, she would tell him what to say.

Dragonlady was pretty pushy when she wanted to be, but she was pretty enough and quiet enough to make up for it the rest of the time. Laurent wasn't adverse to conversation, but Dragonlady had a harsh way of speaking, as though she was unimpressed with everything around her. It was a Wutaian thing, he guessed, since the Leviathan-Imbued hadn't been the most optimistic kind of guy, either.

Caught up in thoughts, he was a little startled when Dragonlady's voice rang through his mind, at once musical and cutting - she had no wish to sound pleasant towards him. _Reveal yourself._ Phoenix grinned and waited for the opportunity.

The girl at the head of their column, the Cetra, had been growing more and more nervous the higher they climbed, though he was pretty sure it had nothing to do with the height. She and her little Planet-attuned mind would almost certainly sense him, or at least the presence of something powerful and bearing ill will. And boy, did Phoenix ever bear ill will.

So when she next slipped up, he laughed. And when they all turned suddenly towards him, faces in comically identical expression of shock, he couldn't help but laugh harder. He heard his title whispered among them, not fearfully but angrily, by the blond leader whom he'd burned severely during their last encounter, and he stopped laughing and waved cheerfully at them.

_The elevator is on its way down. Make certain that Leviathan's daughter perishes._

"Nice to see you, too, Strife." The words rolled from his tongue in his customary drawl. "Now, while you're all just hanging around..." He pushed away from the wall and stepped out confidently into the air. Someone gasped, and that made him chuckle a little more as the wings of the Phoenix held him in place. "Aww. How sweet."

He looked up, grinning at the uncertainly hovering robot. "Now, it is my sad duty to inform you that the elevator is on its way down." Soft oaths and the narrowing of eyes. "Y'all know how fast it is, I'm sure, so I won't waste your time talking about that. Nah, I'd like to talk about... our dear little Leviathan-**geh**."

Man, he hoped Dragonlady had slipped him that word. He didn't want to know if he knew Wutaian.

"What about me?" The girl's voice rang clear through the dimly lit shaft. Laurent descended slowly, eyes roving thoughtfully over all of their faces, until he came to Kisaragi Yuffie and grinned at her.

"My, you _do_ remind me of your papa."

She snarled at him and her grey eyes narrowed fiercely. "Don't you talk about my **vydran**. What do you want?"

Phoenix shrugged and hovered a little closer to her, ignoring the warning sounds the rest of the group made. The flare of inhuman fury in the man below, Valentine, made him smile. How intriguing, that regional powers should mesh... exactly as they had never been meant to do, before the Shinra's meddling had begun. Before the Cetra had suppressed the natural order, favouring their weak descendants...

Laurent's bright blue eyes grew cold with rage.

"Your death."

He plucked her from the girder, holding her at arm's length for less than a heartbeat, and then - her eyes widened as she understood what was about to happen - he let her go.

She screamed as she fell, vanishing into the darkness below.

Over the cries of shock and sadness, anger and pain at the loss, the bubbling of ancient anger spilled upward and out of control. Even as the power Laurent sensed eclipsed the sounds that he heard, the red-eyed man's sentiment was heard loud and clear, even by Dragonlady, whose voice was suddenly worried in his mind, urging him to forget everything, to fly.

_**NO.**_

Leviathan's daughter fell through intangible blackness. The red-cloaked man plummeted after her.

* * *

A/N: Yet another cliffhanger. Don't be too worried, though. You all know I could never allow anything really bad to happen to my two favourite characters.

:hides _Rise_, in which Vincent gets his other arm cut off, and previous chapters of F&F where everyone close to Yuffie dies:

I planned Yuffie's catching out, frame-by-frame. I may not have described it very well, but it does work. I'll put up the frame-by-frame images on my web site if it's still way too confusing.

Sorry, it's a little shorter than I was expecting it to be. The next chapter will be fairly short as well, but that means it'll be out sooner.

No, Vincent is not getting the Death Penalty back – and he's not getting a funkier gun, either. (If he desperately needs to, he can use the Outsider, because it is my second favourite to the Death Penalty.) I want to examine Vincent's relationship with Chaos in this, and that means relying on the demon more.

**Lady Azar de Tameran** – This fic contains, but is not limited to, the following: Cloud/Tifa, Aeris/Sephiroth, Cid/Shera, Yuffie/Vincent, Reno/OC, Reeve/OC, Rude/Elena and numerous OC/OC. The gender of the Imbued does not necessarily have to match the gender of the Summon; I'm sorry if Feather, Shiva and Ayuki gave people the wrong idea. ; Ramuh was a planned character, but Titan didn't like him so I had to cut him out. Alexander was never planned as a character... but you'll find out why later.

**Demeter** – I'm glad you like the Imbued; I'm very fond of them myself. :laughs:

**Seventhe** - :wince: Yes, I know it can get confusing with all the characters. That's why I usually try to write fics centred on two or three people at most. But this was always going to be ambitious... and if you think it's tough reading it, it's WAY harder writing it! ;; Just keeping the plot going in a relatively straight line is killing me:laughs: But I'll try to keep that in mind when writing future chapters.

**the Dr.** – Odin does come into it, but not as a true Imbued. See, I like Odin too much to cage him inside just _any_ human... See what you make of that.

**Kit Thespian – **One of my greatest failings is that I like stories to have happy endings... and that means that everybody has a somebody! ; Barret does have a somebody – sort of. (You don't think he'd leave Marlene with anyone he didn't trust implicitly, do you?) :blinks: Holy crap. Aeris hasn't visited Elmyra yet. :scratches head: How did I miss that one:makes note of this:


	27. Elevator Action, Part II

Disclaimer: I do not own anyone or anything from FFVII. I do own Feather, Lana, the Imbued and this storyline.

A/N: And we're back. Now to ease the tension of that nasty cliff-hanger. Believe it or not, I was listening to Pokemon sound tracks while I wrote this chapter. Go fig.

The falling sequence takes approximately ten seconds, because I can't remember what critical mass is for the human body and I'm not about to call up my Physics teacher to find out. So, we pretend that critical mass can't be reached in an elevator shaft.

One more thing before we start. Well, lots of things, really. Shawni, I completely understand your troubles, as I have the attention span of a gnat on nitrous oxide. So, at the moment AVALANCHE are trying to find all the information relating to the Imbued and the Imbuing process as possible, so that they know their enemy when it comes to fighting them - because the Imbued are a wee bit too powerful to be battling with little to no idea of their capabilities. Basically, the Imbued are those that have been... well, marinated, for lack of a better word, in the essence of the Summons, drawing the Summon straight from the materia and into the human itself. I won't explain their motivations because... well, they're many and varied, and also you'll find out more about them later. I hope that's cleared things up a little.

And now, onto the chapter itself.

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter 27: Elevator Action, Part II

Falling.

She was _falling_.

Too far from the sides of the lift shaft to touch, to hold, to arrest her motion. She'd probably rip her arms off, anyway. Leviathan - _she was falling._

And being remarkably calm about it, too, if truth be told. Everything seemed to be moving too slow, as though this couldn't possibly be real and her perception would rather face death later than now. It was getting hard to tell, though, just how fast everything was going past, because the dim light of Nanaki's tail and Cait's Mog's eyes and, hell, the Phoenix-Imbued - it was all too far off to matter. The light didn't travel this far. Not that she had much use for it, anyway. It wasn't as though she could tread on sunbeams.

What she _could_ see of the walls scrolled past at an alarming rate, no matter how unreal and fuzzy it seemed to her. How far had she fallen? How far had they climbed? How far until...?

Tears pricked the corners of her eyes and she thought, fervently, that she did not want to die. A little sob hitched in her throat. She really, really, absolutely-no-way-in-Hell-even-if-you-paid-her _did not want to die_.

Though the words were ripped away by the wind before she could hear them, she screwed up her fists in front of her and whispered a prayer, any prayer, and tried with all her might to will someone, something, to save her because she didn't want to die, she couldn't, she had things to do and she needed... she needed to...

* * *

Somewhere, an assent.

* * *

...her eyes filled with tears and she opened them on reflex to stop the tears from showing, and she saw what may have been the most beautiful sight she'd ever seen - including the whole field of sakura that had once flourished to the north of the village, cupped between the curve of the river and the rising slope of Da Chao.

Vincent's body warped and twisted to give him wings.

Yuffie reached out towards the dark outline of Chaos, recognising nothing more than the burning crimson eyes, and had barely clasped her arms around the demon's neck before the blackness became complete.

* * *

Reeve's amber eyes widened as, almost like they'd been cued, six of the more miscellaneous monitors he had programmed to receive data from Cait Sith promptly dissolved into visual static. He swore before he thought about it, smacking a heavy palm into the location map, and then the altitude monitor, and knowing that neither movement would do a damn thing to help him.

From behind him, all the way across the bunker, he heard Tone say, "Shit."

A dangerous rumble had begun, a rumble that had nothing to do with the earth, or even the sky. It wasn't even a rumble, Reeve thought as he frowned and squinted, trying to place it -

Beside him, Feather grabbed him by the arm and held onto it tightly, her fingers like iron bands through the worn fabric of his borrowed shirt. "The Water -!"

That's what it was! Reeve barely had time to think it before the rumble reached them and, astonishingly quickly, water began to trickle down the walls. Tone gaped at this for a few seconds and then, pressing his worn golf cap to his head as though it would fly away, set off at a run for the upper floor. Reeve pushed himself away from his monitor and followed him, dragging Feather along for the ride since she hadn't let go of his arm yet.

They fell behind on the stairs, a fact that surprised and horrified Reeve, even though this certainly was not the time to be thinking about things like fitness or his waistline, and by the time he reached the little room at the top of the spiral staircase he was out of breath and gasping.

What he beheld around the silhouette of Tone at the steel doorway was something that, since it could not take his breath away, nearly made him retch instead.

It was raining.

No, it was not raining. Reeve was pretty sure there had never been a rain as fierce, or as sudden - hell, he hadn't even been registering humidity, let alone... let alone whatever he was supposed to call _this!_

Tone let out a low whistle. "Looks like your friends are gonna be gettin' wet."

Looking out at what may have been several oceans pouring out of the sky, Reeve thought that might have been the biggest understatement the universe had ever contained.

* * *

He had leaped without a second thought, thrusting himself away and downward and hoping against hope that he could just catch up, just fall fast enough, just get there in time. He hated the heavy rippling of the cloak about his shoulders, the way it caught at the air and prevented him from moving fast enough.

She was below him, mere meters away, and her eyes were closed. Even in this darkness, he could see the concentration on her face, the tears moistening her lashes and being swept away by the velocity.

Vincent issued a silent plea to whoever was listening.

Yuffie's eyes snapped open and stared at him as though... as though...

A pain broke out on his skin, a surprisingly vague pain considering that bones were twisting and reforming themselves, skin was hardening and the wings split his back. It was almost as though the changes were happening to someone else.

Chaos beat its - his - their great wings and suddenly Yuffie was there in their arms, crushing her arms around their neck with force that would have bruised a human but had no effect upon their thick, near plated skin. Almost as suddenly, the arms relaxed and they knew Yuffie had lost consciousness. With gentleness that Vincent had thought this form incapable of, they crossed their arms about the limp, pliant form of the young girl, _the woman, dammit, Valentine,_ and against all probability they spread their wings and managed to come to a shaky halt.

They hovered there for a few breathless moments.

There was a rumbling even this far below ground, as though the ground all around them was being beat upon, like the skin of a drum. As Chaos beat its powerful wings, water began to flood the elevator shaft, running in rivulets down the walls at first and then covering them entirely with a thin, deceptively soft-looking layer of silvery liquid.

Chaos beat its wings once, twice, and they began a much slower journey upward in the awkward tightness of the lift shaft.

At the very bottom of the lift shaft, water began to pool.

* * *

Reno's fingers were going slowly white as he clenched them on the steel girder. He wasn't going to believe it. Not a chance. The brat had just been back-talking like a pro, she wasn't dead, and neither was Valentine - he wouldn't have jumped after her if he couldn't do anything, he just wasn't that sort of guy.

_Shit, shit, shit, but what about Nibelheim? Where was his perfect planning and rational thought then?_

He became vaguely aware that he was staring up at the fast disappearing blaze of the Phoenix-Imbued with an expression he certainly would not have wanted to see directed at him. Then he put some effort into it.

"FUCKING BASTARD!" He screamed as loudly as he could. "GET BACK HERE!" He took a breath to continue with every insult he had ever learned and felt a firm poke at his ankle. Still snarling, he glanced down to find Sephiroth staring up at him in disapproval.

"Shut up. The elevator is coming down. We need to force entry and divide into groups so we can make it inside."

Astonished by his coldness, Reno just blinked at him for a few seconds. That was enough for Sephiroth to raise his voice and call, "Cloud!"

The blond man, who had been staring upward, frozen for a few seconds with a similar fury, leaned to the side and looked down toward the faint glimmer of Sephiroth's eyes. He nodded distractedly and closed his eyes for a few seconds, leaning his head against the girder. He pulled away from it again in shock as water began pouring down the walls of the lift shaft, occasional runnels trickling out onto the girder. "What the hell -?"

There was a rumbling from above. Reno wasn't sure if it was the water or the elevator.

Fortunately, Cloud seemed to have come to this conclusion as well, for he finally braced himself against the girder more firmly and cleared his throat. "Calm down, everyone. The lift's on its way, we just need to figure out how to board it as it comes. Cait, I need you to fly straight up there with Red. Get inside and dangle as much of the rope - weighted, it'll need to be weighted - through the hole as you can."

"You got it, boss - but you're gonna have no light down here."

"We'll manage." Cloud replied curtly. "Go."

Cait's Moogle pumped its little wings frantically for a few seconds and rose a few feet. It tapped its heels together expectantly. Two small rocket boosters emerged from the soles of its feet and it blasted away skyward nearly as fast as the Phoenix-Imbued had done. Nanaki's undignified yelp echoed through the lift shaft and they were left in complete darkness.

There was an odd sort of silence, as though they had all suddenly realised they were stories above (and below) solid ground in pitch-blackness with an elevator descending at high speed towards them. Cloud cleared his throat again.

"Right, we need to divide into groups. We should have enough rope to do four at a time, and we'll be able to see it approaching so light isn't a real issue. Okay." He took a quick breath through his nose. "Aeris, Elena and Tifa. Start climbing. You need to be a fair way ahead so we can get everyone into the lift… Reno, can you climb up the side of the girder and go ahead of them? Tifa will need a hand pulling other people into the lift."

Reno, with vision born of too much time spent in a mako-filled environment, edged around the side of the girder and climbed a few meters. "Yeah, no problem. On my way."

As he passed Rude, Cloud continued. "Lana, Barret and I will stay here. Rude and Sephiroth, climb down as far as you can. We don't have much time to space ourselves out. _Go._"

Reno was passing Lana now, then Tifa, then Elena, then Aeris - they were already climbing, but he was practically running up the side of the scaffold-like girder in an effort to not be crushed by an elevator and to stop thinking about the fact that two of their group had, in all probability, just fallen to their deaths. He brushed against the wall with his shoulder and grunted in annoyance when the water running down it leapt for a new conduit, soaking his entire right side. Stupid dress shirt - like the damn thing wasn't constrictive enough dry.

He swung back away from the wall and onto the front of the girder again. Aeris made a small sound of discomfort as he dripped water all over her, but she kept climbing doggedly in his wake.

Reno focused only on his hands as he monkeyed his way up the girder. Until light fell on them, there really wasn't much that he could do but count the seconds. He didn't want to do that, 'cause it sure as hell wouldn't help him. He wasn't a physics whiz like Reeve - he couldn't work out how far they'd climbed or how fast the brat would have fallen, or whether the sound of her bones' liquification would have echoed up the lift shaft. This was one of the times Reno was glad he wasn't highly educated, but in this situation ignorance was just as bad. Not knowing the chances was just as bad - maybe even worse - because not knowing allowed him to _hope_...

Tifa was swearing quietly but passionately as she climbed. Reno found that he agreed with most of what she was saying. Elena had a few choice words of her own to add to Tifa's collection, but Aeris was silent behind and beneath him. He had the briefest of moments to wonder if she was praying before a feline squall from above distracted him. He jerked his head upward so fast he felt and heard his neck crick painfully, but he wasn't paying attention to _that_.

Fair hurtling down at them came the lift cage. But a great circle had been melted - or perhaps a better term would be 'vaporised' - away from its base, backlit around the edges by the few flourescent panels that remained around the similar hole in the cage's ceiling. In the centre of this glowing circle of light, Reno could dimly (but more clearly all the time) see the thin, serpent-like line of the rope, with Cait Sith dangling from its tip to weight it as the lift descended.

"Get ready!" The nasal voice boomed, just the right pitch to carry down the saft over the noise of the lift cage. Reno reflected, perhaps a touch sullenly, that there had to be _something_ favourable about cats to prompt Reeve to build a robotic one, even if that single favourable thing was what made him want to kill the 'singing' slum cats at three in the morning.

Reno knew without looking that Aeris was gazing upward with barely contained horror, that Elena had tensed expectantly, that Tifa's eyes had narrowed in that fierce Zangan-learned concentration. He held his breath as Cait came closer.

"On my signal! Jump when you hear your name!" The robot's squeaky voice was strangely calm. Reno realised with a strange, warmth burst of faith that it was all right to just trust in the cat - the robot had spent its entire existence calculating trajectories. That was how it _worked._

"Your shining moment, boss," Reno muttered under his breath, and tensed expectantly as Cait Sith sailed past him...

"RENO!"

…jack-rabbiting off the wall and spinning…

"AERIS!"

…hands and feet closing on the rope _thank God, thank God_ and burning as he slid, feet or inches, it didn't matter…

"ELENA!"

…and the tell-tale jerk and tremble as Aeris' hands caught, one on the rope, one fisted tightly on his ankle…

"TIFA!"

…and a bare millisecond to breathe before Cait was screaming, "It ain't over yet - _climb! Climb!_"

Reno could do that.

* * *

As soon as Reno was in reach, Red set himself and sank his teeth firmly into Reno's sleeve - and, inadvertently, part of his elbow - to help the Moogle drag the Turk up over the edge of the gaping hole in the elevator's floor. Reno yelped at the sting as the Moogle's over-sized hands closed on him and yanked him firmly upward. Red turned back to the hole as soon as the Turk was over the lip of the hole, but heard the rustle of fabric as Reno swung around behind him.

"Just a few feet more, Aeris, and then we can help you," Red assured the flower girl, who stared back at him, grim and pale.

"Bugger that," muttered Reno behind him. Another fabric-slide and the Turk had hooked his legs around one of the Moogle's stumpy, pillar-like legs and bellied forward 'til he was hanging down over the edge of the hole. "Grab on, toots!" Despite the situation, Aeris muttered something Red wasn't quite sure was polite before she grabbed his hands. Reno ignored this and kept up a cheerful banter as he hauled her upward and gave her hands to the Mog.

"That's it, right over the top, grab the Moogle, watch your step - hi, 'Laney, how's it goin'? Up you go - c'mon, Lockhart, Lana's gotta jump soon..."

With the six of them in the cage, it was much easier to haul the next jump group into the elevator cage. Lana came next, immediately turning to give Barret a hand. The bear-like man's shoulders very nearly brushed the edge of the hole, since Reno was still dangling down through it. Cloud's face was pale and angry as he grabbed Reno, and the Turk grinned as he passed the spike-headed blond into Tifa's hands, where he immediately gasped, "Give me a minute and I'll help - just gotta - my hands..."

"Too many cooks!" Tifa responded urgently, patting him on the shoulder as she ushered him aside. "Just sit by Aeris."

She was surprisingly terse. Reno found himself impressed by the fact that she could see past her infatuation to the fact that Rude had taken a blow to the head and shouldn't be doing _anything_ - much less climbing in the dark. This respect only increased as Elena dragged Rude up over the lip of the hole and retreated to sit him back against the wall while they waited to reach Sephiroth. Dimly, though he was still focusing on the lift shaft, Reno heard her telling him, "Stay still, or I swear to God I'll kill you."

For just a tiny, tiny moment, Reno was pretty sure he wasn't leading a goddamn thing.

From the end of the rope, Cait Sith yelled, "NOW, SEPHI-KINS, NOW!"

Sephiroth pounced on the rope as though he'd been born a cat, spinning in mid-air and compensating for Cid's weight perfectly. He gritted his teeth, stared fiercely up at Reno, green eyes narrowed into tiny, pained slits. They widened and unfocused as he began to make his way slowly, stubbornly upwards.

One arm... two arms... three...

Reno found himself gritting his teeth and straining, though Sephiroth was still meters below him. "...too much," he heard himself whispering. "It's too much; grab the rope and we'll pull him up ourselves."

He wriggled backward, unhooked his legs and sat still for a few seconds, giddying as the blood left his head. "Oi, Mog, you'll have to be the anchor. Pull on the rope." The Moogle took several paces backwards with the rope in its massive hands and set itself. Then it, too, began to move the rope, arm after arm. Reno pulled in front of it, Cloud pushing himself up to help. Lana was next to join the odd tug-o'-war line while Elena gathered the slack, knotting it patiently along the handrail. (Since Wutai, she'd been determined to know all about bonds and restraints.) Slowly, too slowly for Reno's liking, Sephiroth, Cid and Cait Sith rose toward the cage.

Aeris hauled herself over the the lip of the hole, mouthing encouraging words and - to her own private guilt - searching the darkness below for some sign of Vincent or Yuffie. Sephiroth's mouth was moving, too, but unlike Cait Sith's piercing yowl, his was the sort that melted irretrievably into silences, let alone the heavy groan of an elevator. Aeris couldn't hear him until he was close to her ear and he was yelling, "- need to _stop the lift_, why the _hell_ haven't you opened the control panel, _was Tseng training you or feeding you bonbons for seven years!_" Elena, stung into action, immediately set to beating at the plate covering the control panel while Sephiroth heaved himself wearily over the edge of the hole and hastily detached himself from Cid.

Aeris took the old pilot from him, setting Cid's head sorrowfully in her lap. He looked so old and frail, unconscious, not at all like the bluff, hearty tea-coveting man she'd known for so long. She bowed her head over him, silent prayer filling her thoughts for a few seconds, and then she turned to more practical avenues of healing. Tifa helped her to loosen his scarf and remove his jacket; Red XIII lay down alongside him to preserve his body heat.

Sephiroth, more flustered than any of them had ever seen him, swore quietly as he worked with Cait Sith at the elevator controls. In the silence that followed the odd occurrence, there was time enough for AVALANCHE to notice the sound of wings...

* * *

Vincent/Chaos climbed steadily, Yuffie in their arms, water running down their cramped wingtips. Above them, the elevator came closer. Vincent tried to call, to warn them he was coming, to hurry them out of his way.

Chaos knew no such niceties.

* * *

An earth-shattering roar was all that preceded Chaos' entrance into the elevator cage. The great, venomously purple beast surged upward through the hole in the floor, wings like so many ragged folds of a wind-ravaged umbrella. It flipped in the air, taloned feet slamming and catching on the metal of the ceiling at the lip of the hole there. Yuffie was clutched, unconscious but otherwise safe, in its brawny arms. Cait Sith cheered, Tifa nearly swallowed her tongue in delight and Cloud - for a brief moment - actually grinned so widely that his cheeks cramped up.

Chaos bent itself double, using the arm that was not holding Yuffie to catch the rail around the edge of the cage with a foreclaw and holding this as it slowly spun itself upright. It let go of the rail, landing somewhat unsteadily on the elevator floor. Then, it sat down rather suddenly against the glass wall beside Rude and - equally suddenly - became Vincent.

The red-eyed man stared absently at the elevator's inhabitants. His eyelids drooped briefly before he forced them open again and rolled his head to look at Cloud, obviously of the opinion that something really _ought_ to be happening, but too exhausted to contemplate what that might be.

Sephiroth let out a small sound of triumph as the elevator ground to a halt and all the lights went out.

At this, Vincent's sense of duty was apparently satisfied. In the flickering light of Red's tail, Reno saw the ex-Turk's head lean back against the glass as he, calmly and with much dignity, lost consciousness.

Tifa let out a horrified little squeak and moved to help, but as Reno nudged Rude's long legs aside and crouched beside Vincent, she hesitated.

Reno reached across companionably and gently (a motion seen seldom on the brash, irresponsible Turk) propped the unconscious man up against Rude. Vincent's head lolled forward, effectively mooshing the side of his face into the top of Yuffie's head. Reno grinned a little at the thought of leaving them like that, then settled Vincent's head back on Rude's shoulder. "Ya done good, Valentine," he said helpfully as he stood. Through the hole they had come through, he could see little fiery ripples of the light on the surface of the still rising water in the lift shaft. "Ya done real good."

Barret peered keenly through the darkness at the Turk.

"That's gotta be the first thing you ever said that I 'gree with, Turk."

Reno nudged Vincent's boot with his toe, thoughtfully, rather than rising to the bait.

"Make it two, ya reckon? Let's get the fuck outta dodge."

Sephiroth, obviously unhinged by adrenaline or exhaustion or both, muttered, "Figures," and went to work convincing the elevator to go _up_.

* * *

A/N: Thank the gods that's finished. This took forever to write, mostly because - in case some of you hadn't heard - I really, REALLY broke my keyboard the other day. As in, the keys are shriveled and melted and the 'i' has fallen off. Trust me when I tell you that you don't want to know.

In other news, next chapter we actually have some fluff, since I've felt its loss keenly these past few chapters. Time for an explanation of some of these weird and wonderful events. :rubs hands together gleefully: I can't wait.

Also, please forgive me if the punctuation is a little fucked up, for lack of better words. QuickEdit makes mincemeat of anything I type – to the point where I'm almost prepared to just stop posting here. (Which won't mean you lose the story, it'll just mean that everything will take longer to get uploaded because of coding issues meeting my infinite laziness. Yes, you read right - _even longer_. Be afraid.)

Review responses:

**JML** - Yes, I admit it - I was pronouncing Reno "Ree-noe". I am a very bad girl. I also mispronounce Yuffie, but I'm trying to train myself away from both of these things. I do, I know, pronounce Cait Sith incorrectly according to his kana naming, but I maintain that the way I pronounce it is actually correct according to probable origins of the name. As to your questions, Summons vary greatly when it comes to their opinions on such things. Leviathan was somewhat annoyed, as you guessed. The Chocobo, being harnessed in reality by humans and by the Cetra materia-wise, was understandably a little peeved. But the Summons that receive respect from humans and Cetra alike are a totally different story...

**Crystal Tempest** - I wrote all these chapters at the same time, but I don't like to mass-update. I like to give people time to stew and figure things out. (Unfortunately, I also sometimes forget to update after I've given you 'stewing' time. My bad.)

**Ace-of-Spades3** - Mwa. Ha. Hah. ;P No, really, I feel your pain. I loved that gun, too.

**The Dr.** - Er. Odin only comes in a _little_. Like, really. WAY little. Itty bitty. Sorry for getting your hopes up. (But really, think about the characters. Who can we see as being Odin? I'm sure you'll work it out.)

**DemonSurfer** - :tacklehug: Thank the gods SOMEONE noticed:sets up small shrine to you: (Haha, and I assume you're not a Cid/Vincent shipper, then. XD)


	28. Ripple

Disclaimer: I do not own anyone or anything from FFVII. I do own the Imbued, Feather, Lana, the random cadet and this storyline. And, since they pushed their way into this chapter, Saff and Verde.

A/N: I really like Galian Beast. I don't know why it's speaking up in this chapter. It just... is.

I don't know what the hell I'm doing with the word 'moogle'. Sometimes it's capitalised and sometimes, it ain't. I have no idea why my brain refuses to level out on this one, folks. Sorry.

And I'd like to apologise for the use of 'critical mass' rather than 'terminal velocity' in the last chapter. Believe it or not, I was actually thinking of the latter. Perhaps I was also contemplating using a nuclear weapon on my brother, or my keyboard, as I typed that chapter. My bad. I'm not an idiot; just easily distracted.

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter 28: Ripple

Vincent's faint lasted approximately twelve minutes.

Ten minutes of it were spent - by Sephiroth at least - reconnecting wires in the faltering light of Red XIII's tail (because Cait's headlights made the yellow wire and the white wire _both_ look white).

One and a half minutes were spent traveling upward, Cloud speaking lowly but confidently of what was going to happen once they left the elevator.

Tifa spent the final thirty seconds of Vincent's lapse of consciousness shaking his right shoulder cautiously, trying to get him to wake. It was only after she had persuaded Reno that she would be all right carrying Yuffie if he could just help to get Vincent upright, so Barret could take him, that she and Reno each grabbed an arm and extricated Yuffie from Vincent's protective grasp.

At least, they tried to.

Vincent's eyes opened, pupils narrowed to vertical slits in a sea of seething blood-crimson. He reacted before he had time to take in his surroundings, flailing the claw and curling long legs around Yuffie's prone form defensively. His upper lip curled back as though to display fangs he did not possess.

Reno fell on his ass with a yelp of, "_Jesus_, Valentine!" (He had been holding the claw arm.) Tifa was calmer, knowing Vincent would only make feints until he knew precisely what he was up against. She raised her forearms just in case, though.

"Vincent, it's us. We need to get out of here." Despite the feral look that remained in Vincent's now more human-looking eyes (the pupil had dilated a little), Tifa found herself smiling a little. "Can you walk?"

Blood regarded wine, slowly calming. Vincent nodded a little shakily, obviously struggling with the overlap of Chaos' consciousness and his own. Tifa reached slowly for Yuffie's shoulder. Vincent moved the bar-like bronze forearm to intercept her hand, thoughtlessly. For a second his gaze wavered, as though the action had taken him by surprise. Then he caught Tifa's eye again.

"I will carry her. You should tend to Cid."

Had she been any other person, Tifa probably would have replied - and logically so - that it was best that she carry Yuffie, because Vincent had only just regained consciousness. He was obviously under a lot of stress. Aeris was looking after Cid; she didn't need any help because Sephiroth was carrying the pilot.

Instead, Tifa looked Vincent very carefully in the eye and said, "Do you need a hand up?"

In answer, Vincent tucked his heels tighter against his buttocks and arched himself oddly, up and away from the glass wall of the elevator cage. Miraculously, he took Yuffie with him, though her legs dangled uselessly a full six inches from the ground. He cautiously swept his claw beneath her legs, catching them at the knee, and lifted her completely away from the floor. It didn't seem to tax him at all. Tifa regarded him for a second, then nodded in satisfaction.

"All right. Let's get out of here."

Reno clambered to his feet, wincing a little. "Hey Valentine, next time you decide to take off my nose, do it with the other hand, a'ight? Those fingers of yours came a little close to my eyes for comfort." Vincent's stare, when it came, was neither apologetic nor amused. Reno let it drop with an ambiguous shrug and sauntered out of the elevator. His bare foot made a splashing sound as it hit the corridor.

Vincent glanced at the floor curiously, feeling water envelop his booted foot to the ankle. Fast-flowing water, rain by the smell of it, heading for the elevator shaft... filling the lab, he didn't doubt. How convenient for the Imbued.

His feet made muffled 'ting's as they hit the metal walkway beneath the river of raindrops. He was reminded of crystal - and then, abruptly, of Staniv's mako-devoured form shattering as easily as a glass dropped on concrete. His jaw clenched, and he clutched Yuffie imperceptibly closer, ducking his head a little to touch his nose soothingly (For her? For him? He wasn't sure.) to her sweat-dampened hair. How would she react when told that the last of her old, familiar retainers was dead?

How was he supposed to tell her something like that?

The twinge of guilt that tightened the muscles in his abdomen was immediately recognisable. He had been familiar with the emotion for far too long. This guilt, he knew, was foolish. He could not have saved Staniv. If Chaos did not sense the Phoenix, Vincent's senses were not as acute as Red XIII's were. They were lucky to have had as much warning as they did. He should not expect himself to have done more than he had.

A voice, louder and more coherent than it had been in many months, offered its own quiet solace. _Only you could have delivered the message he gave you. If you hadn't been there, even his death would have been useless._

Vincent's eyes narrowed in surprise and gratification at the words/images of Galian Beast. The first of the demons that dwelt within him, and also the weakest, it had been dominated by the other personalities as time went by. Wolf-like, it was more pack-oriented than either of the lesser demons that dwelt within Vincent's mind, and seemed to have the most understanding (bar Chaos, of course) of human emotion. Though it galled him to admit it, the monster was correct. If Vincent had not been there, if he had ascended to the upper laboratory instead, they would have even less to go on.

There was no pleasure in the thought, only a vague sense of pride that his unique abilites had proved useful to his companions, had always been useful, no matter what Hojo had done to him. The slightest of bitter smiles twisted his lips, vanishing as they group ground slowly to a halt in front of the second elevator.

It had been melted completely as the Phoenix-Imbued passed it, though the rapid-flowing rain had cooled the molten metal soon after. There would be very little for AVALANCHE to work with, Vincent reflected sourly, and he could not wall-jump with that volume of water still pouring down to flood the subterranean laboratories...

Galian Beast had spoken too soon about his usefulness, it seemed.

* * *

"What do you mean, 'they're not dead'?"

The Titan-Imbued had lungs like stone caverns, and it was times like these where Laurent really was just a little bit afraid of him - times where Titan wasn't afraid to use those lungs of his to create sounds similar to the shifting of tectonic plates, or mountains falling down. It wasn't a good sound.

"Well, uh, I mean they're still alive. Probably." Laurent dithered, one hand tugging nervously on a tuft of his fire-coloured hair. He was trying to smile disarmingly at Titan, but he had the distinct impression that the expression was going pear-shaped on his face. Titan didn't deal well with failure; he had a bad temper to go along with a will of iron, and his high expectations of himself and others didn't exactly make things easy.

The twins could vouch for that.

Laurent immediately regretted thinking it. A trickle of not-pain wormed its way through his chest and his throat tightened. He missed them. He didn't hate Titan, he could never hate Titan, but... but he'd...

"_Phoenix._ They were meant to _die._"

Laurent sighed heavily and dropped his hand reluctantly to his side.

"...I know, boss. I'm sorry."

Laurent stared forlornly at Titan. The silver-hair man/god had his eyes closed, brows lowered at a frustrated angle Laurent was sure normal eyebrows couldn't achieve. He was obviously clenching his teeth. In a slow, rage-choked tone, he ground out, "Dragon. _Why _were you unsuccessful?"

Laurent let his eyes shift carefully to Dragonlady. She exhibited no sign of nervousness; she looked as proud and as unruffled as ever. Ryyu examined the tips of her black gloves thoughtfully as she replied.

"It appears that some of that group are able to speak with the children of the Planet." The words were unhesitant. Ryyu always tried to vocalise an idea as precisely as possible. Laurent thought it must have been a Wutaian thing - she also had a habit of never quite stating what she meant, something he knew Wutaian businessmen were famous for. Titan's hands clenched on the arms of his chair.

"What do you mean?" Laurent inquired.

Dragonlady's eyes snapped open, a fiery golden glower. "Are you a fool?" She asked scathingly, ruby lips down-turned. Her scowl deepened as Titan raised his hand to quell her temper.

"Our Phoenix was not bred for brains." He said simply. Laurent stuck out his chin and resisted the impulse to roll his eyes. So, he wasn't smart. He wasn't even particularly strong, compared to these two. It didn't make him completely useless, as well they knew.

"Okay, so explain to the bird-brain what she means, boss-man. I'm dyin' here."

Titan made a stirring sort of motion with a long, earth-coloured forefinger. "Your little girl, the one who escaped with the President..." Laurent nodded, grinning a little behind his eyes. He was kinda glad she'd gotten out of there - it was a creepy place, and he'd always hated the Shiva-Imbued. Ayuki had been... Laurent was pretty sure there wasn't a word for it. _Snooty bitch_, he thought in annoyance, and snorted. Well, there certainly wasn't a _polite_ word for it.

"She was able to speak with Shiva. That is why the goddess is trapped in the materia once more." Titan explained, more or less patiently. "But she wasn't with the group today. She would not have known that the Kisaragi girl had fallen. Whoever called Leviathan--"

"Huh?" Laurent raised an eyebrow. "You mean the rain? But... I mean, it was spreading anyway, right? It would have reached Midgar before long..."

Ryyu's voice was curiously amused as she spoke. "Not so quickly, nor in such a timely manner. Leviathan was called."

"By who?" Laurent demanded, crossing his arms. "If it wasn't baby-girl--"

But the expression on Titan's face made him falter.

"Yes," he said with a small, frightening smile. "That is the question, isn't it?"

* * *

Vincent sat patiently at Cid's bedside, monitoring his condition with half an eye. Barret was sitting on the opposite side of Cid's bed with his arms crossed, scowling darkly at the two young men who had helped Tone and Reeve to get them all up the second elevator shaft. Barret had referred to them grumpily as kids, but in truth both were in their mid-twenties.

Saff and Verde were their names, the former a bright creature with blond curls to his waist, the latter as calm and placid as a deep forest, though with the similar sensation that many things were going on, unseen. Vincent trusted neither of them, but Reno seemed to know them both quite well. Street alliances counted for a lot in the slums of Midgar. Vincent would be forced to rely on the Turk's judgment of their character, which he was not pleased to do, but... Cid was sleeping peacefully after Verde's doses of a chemical with a fourteen-syllable name, and had thus far suffered no ill effects. Yuffie's faint was more or less natural after the stress she'd endured. She had not been medicated.

Vincent spared a glance in her direction. Saff had cheerily laid her out in the bed, removing her boots and the more easily detached pieces of armour before he covered her with the blankets and shook his head with a laugh. "First time for everything, I suppose," he'd commented slyly to Reno, who had rolled his eyes, turned a dull red and called loudly for Verde to come take control of his vicious beast. Yuffie hadn't moved since, and hours later Vincent was growing concerned for her. Yuffie tended to regard sleeping as a waste of time, after all. And she hadn't been badly hurt like last time, hadn't—

Vincent became aware that he was still staring somewhat blankly at Yuffie's sleeping form, three beds away, and snapped his attention back to Cid. Barret's attention had shifted, too, and he was regarding Vincent with pursed lips, as though he wasn't sure what to think. Vincent recalled their last... conversation... on the matter and found, suddenly, that he couldn't quite meet Barret's eyes.

The awkward moment was interrupted by the tramp of heavy moogle feet. Vincent's lowered gaze fixed onto the rotund belly of Cait Sith's moogle and rose slowly to the over-sized hand extended towards him. It was clenched around the frame of the Conformer.

"You seem to be good at waking her up," Cait offered by way of explanation, "And it keeps pokin' at my insides all uncomfortable-like. So you can hang onto it."

Reluctantly, Vincent hooked the fingers of the claw around the frame and laid the weapon to rest across his knees. "Thankyou." With what was perhaps a rusty attempt to redirect the conversation into safer waters, he asked, "What is Reeve doing?"

Cait shrugged. "He's lookin' for the source of the rain. It'd been spiraling out from Wutai before, but this storm just sprang up out of nowhere. Well, not nowhere," the cat admitted, more pensive than Vincent had seen him in some time. "But it's been raining on and off since... well, you know, and it never seemed like it was going to just get down to business. So something had to have triggered it."

Seeming to realize he had descended to an almost unthinkable level of sobriety, Cait drew himself up with a small feline noise. "Or so the boss thinks. You know him. Cra_aaaaaaay_-zeh." With a wink and a jovial burst of carnival music, the cat-and-moogle pair moved away.

Vincent returned to staring uneasily at the foot of Cid's bed.

After several minutes, he was surprised to find that his gaze had settled on the Conformer – more specifically, on a nearly imperceptible dent in one of the crossbars. Apparently the weapon had not escaped Nibelheim unscathed.

Vincent very determinedly did _not_ look at its owner.

Barret gave vent to a frustrated sigh. "Damn foo'. Get over there and take care of her."

Vincent found, for several seconds, that his mouth was dry. His tongue, to begin with, felt like a bloodless lump of leather in his mouth. "You do not need help with Cid?" He asked finally, though it seemed a pointless question. The pilot, they had been informed by Verde, would sleep for some time yet. Barret's eyes narrowed at him.

"Does it look like I need help? Go sit next to someone who'll 'preciate yer damn company." He uncrossed and then recrossed his arms, apparently seeking to vent some unknown emotion but unsure of how to do it. "And send Aeris over. Haven't had time to catch up, yet," he finished gruffly, not quite meeting Vincent's eyes.

The gunman stared at Barret for several moments, apparently deciding whether Barret's annoyance with him was genuine. Finally he stood, nodded to Barret, and moved toward the trestle tables to inquire after the location of Aeris.

Barret let out a low whistle and shook his head. "Kids," he muttered under his breath, and kicked the foot of Cid's bed absently. "You better wake up soon, man. You don't wanna miss the fireworks."

* * *

In the airship docking bay of a mostly abandoned complex in the middle of the northern ocean, a gold ribbon with scale and fin patterns embroidered into it fluttered fitfully in the wind. The ribbon was the tail of the outfit Ryyu wore – a Wutaian number, crimson with a high collar and no sleeves. From where the ribbon joined the bright silk, a dragon embroidered in gold thread wrapped lazily along Ryyu's thigh, forming a gold band across her hips, to coil sinisterly between her shoulder blades. Today, her ebony hair was piled atop her head in a typical Wutaian knot, held in place with a clip that was an effigy of a golden dragon with six wings.

From either ear lobe, encased similarly in gold, two halves of a Summon materia swayed in the harsh wind.

Ryyu's eyes were closed, eyebrows lowered subtly. Her ruby lips were set firmly in a frown. She found herself disappointed. Not at their failure, _certainly_ not at having made Titan angry. In fact, it was Titan himself who disappointed Ryyu... The man was a fool.

She had called the Phoenix so on more than one occasion, but his idiocy was more acceptable. The Phoenix had long ago accepted that he was not as intelligent, nor as discerning, as many of his companions. He did not try to pretend otherwise. But Titan... It was not that he was stupid. Ryyu was not so arrogant as to think that. Titan simply tried to obscure the true level of his intelligence and _that_, in Ryyu's opinion, was far worse than merely being stupid. It was this failing in a person she served that disappointed her.

Absently, she scratched at her forehead with a gloved fingertip.

More specifically, she supposed she was irritated with the man for his inability to sequence information logically and draw a reasonable conclusion from it. She snorted and opened her eyes, citrine staring out at the grey ocean dispassionately. Who summoned Leviathan, indeed. Ryyu had been certain that Titan would see the evidence as clearly as she had done, but it seemed she had over-estimated her leader yet again. Even though the answer to his question was as plain as day...

It could only be Kisaragi Yuffie. The girl was the culmination of two of the five most important bloodlines in Wutaian history.

The first, every human on the entire Planet knew – the line that named her: Kisaragi. The ruling house of Wutai, spanning back countless centuries and perhaps even millennia to the foundations of human existence on the Planet... to those first children of the Cetra... But Ryyu found that bloodline almost superfluous when compared to Yuffie's _other_ ancestors, for she was also the last remaining daughter of the Amegami.

Ryyu's lips curved in an almost imperceptible smirk. She brushed her gloved hand through her hair, and the smirk froze in its tracks at a sudden sting. Ryyu brought her hand before her eyes and stared dully at the blood on her fingertips, at the small nick in her glove. She stuck it in her mouth absently, smoothing her tongue over the scratch.

"It's getting worse, isn't it?"

The voice of the Phoenix didn't startle her; she'd been aware of his presence for some time. He was usually brash enough to intrude without thought, but apparently he thought that he'd pushed his luck far enough for today. Ryyu turned bland citrine eyes to him, and removed her bleeding finger from her mouth.

"Are you a fool?"

He had the grace to look sheepish.

"What I mean is... aw, I don't know. I guess I just don't want to be the only one left."

Ryyu pressed her lips together and stretched them into what might, with some creativity, have resembled a smile.

"There is much time left, fledgling firebird. You will not be alone for some time, yet."

He shoved his hands roughly into the pockets of his trews and glared out at the ocean stubbornly. "Okay. Well, good. That's all I wanted to know."

Ryyu wondered absently whether he saw the same thing she did, when he watched the stormy sea.

* * *

Aeris was a little disappointed when the flickering signal of Shera's PHS finally grew too weak and the connection died. She'd liked the woman's quietly determined nature, liked the way she cared for Cid probably more than anyone else in the old pilot's whole life. Aeris was so happy for them...

But, she reflected more solemnly, that only made what had happened to Cid worse. Shera would be devastated to lose Cid. Not that the pilot was in real danger, she reminded herself sharply. It had been close for a while there, but Verde had promised he'd be fine if he avoided irritating his lungs for a while. He wasn't allowed to be exposed to extreme cold, or any dust or other 'particulates' until his lungs were better.

Aeris' smile grew a little stronger as she remembered the fervour with which Shera had threatened to disembowel Cid if he so much as _looked_ at a cigarette.

She replaced Tone's land-line handset and watched Feather thoughtfully. The girl, finally willing to venture from Reeve's side, was peering worriedly through the peephole at the storm outside. She held the white Chocobo quill loosely in one hand, but the other brushed absently over the hilt of the knife strapped to her inner forearm.

Sephiroth, who maintained that it was unsafe for any of them to be alone, had ascended with Aeris so that she could make the call. Feather had trailed after them, even going so far as to latch onto Sephiroth's braid so he would slow and wait for her. The ghost of a smile brushed Aeris' lips; the look on Sephiroth's face as he realised it was only Feather, and she could be forgiven for touching his precious hair, had been priceless.

Feather bit her lip at a particularly loud crash of thunder.

Aeris slipped away from the table and touched her shoulder reassuringly. "Are you afraid of the storm?" She asked, wondering why the girl would have come up to look at it if she were. Feather started when Aeris' hand touched her skin, but shook her head, still biting her tattooed lip nervously.

"You can hear him, can't you? Leviathan..."

Aeris' eyes widened in surprise. She removed her hand from Feather's shoulder and clasped it with the other. "Well," she said, flustered, and then, "…yes." She felt a little embarrassed, saying it. Feather nodded expectantly.

"I can hear him, but I don't understand. I know he is angry. But not like he was in Wutai. This is... indignant." Feather's fingers brushed the scabbard of her knife again. "It's as though this storm is to prove someone wrong."

"No," Aeris shook her head before she thought it through. "This storm feels like it's protecting something." Feather's ice green eyes turned on Aeris curiously, and the pale girl nodded.

"It does." She turned back to the peephole. "I don't know what."

Aeris shrugged helplessly and turned to Sephiroth, whose eyes had narrowed calculatingly. She frowned at him. "What is it?" He hesitated before shaking his head.

"Nothing." He paused and glanced toward the door to the stairwell. "Someone's coming."

Aeris wasn't sure whether that was an answer to her question or not. She turned toward the door just as it swung open. Vincent poked his head around its edge and eyed Aeris uncertainly. He was holding the Conformer almost self-consciously at his side. Aeris wondered what had unsettled the gunman.

"Barret asked to talk to you," Vincent said in explanation of his presence. He seemed to hesitate for a split-second, on the verge of saying more, but decided against it in the end. Aeris stood and dusted her dress down, more out of habit than necessity.

"Oh, Vincent, you haven't changed." She scolded him warmly. "You still can't hold up your end of a conversation for more than two minutes at a stretch."

"No." Vincent's eyes narrowed a little in what passed for a warm, but distant, smile. Aeris brightened, as she understood the source of his discontent.

"We'll just have to see what Yuffie can teach you about that. Well, Yuffie or Cait Sith..." She tucked part of her fringe behind her ear and winked at Sephiroth – who pointedly refused to cooperate. Vincent stared at her for a few seconds and shrugged, moving to hold the door open for her.

"Perhaps when she wakes," he conceded tonelessly.

Aeris grinned to herself as she took the first step on the darkened staircase. Enough was as good as a feast.

* * *

A/N: Hope you've enjoyed this. I'll try to update once every two weeks from now on, but no promises.

_Amegami_; from 'ame' for rain and 'kami' for god/spirit. You know you read/watch _X_ too much when you start pulling apart Japanese names over the way they're written. I have no idea if this is an actual Japanese surname; it's a Wutaian surname now.

If anyone feels like dashing my hopes and destroying the sense I've made of the Five Mighty Gods in my own head, they can tell me the possible ways to write 'Kisaragi'. It might justify things, but I doubt it.

Stupid Saffron! Stupid Verde! Messing up my head and insinuating yourselves into this storyline! Isn't _Long Day_ enough for you:glares: I just _know_ Reno put you up to this! Bloody- bloody _tailors!_ :stomps her foot in outrage and storms away:

Review responses:

**JML** – You read 8BT? Awesome. And yes, ghost in the machine indeed... but you will be seeing more on the Summons and their respective Imbued, I promise you.

**Seventhe** – Looks like things are starting to click...:dances:

**Kit Thespian** – Your AeriSeph is coming. Eventually. :glances guiltily at the gaping absence of a chapter plan:

**Sors** – Haha, feel free to archive it if you want to. I am planning to archive it at my own site eventually, but unfortunately I am extremely lazy with HTML, and really can't be bothered. ;


	29. Earth, Sea and Sky

Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII or anything in it. I do own everything in this storyline you haven't seen in FFVII. (The list of individuals is getting far too long.)

A/N: Ahh, the soothing magic the shameless fluff works on my soul. :laughs: Okay, really - this is a fluff and recap chapter. Mostly for those individuals who were unconscious towards the end of it. Well, one individual anyway.

I think Vincent's voice is a little out of sorts this chapter. I've been reading _Good Omens_ a lot lately, and since then I've just had a lot of characters sounding like Aziraphale. I tried.

Also, if this uploads crazy bad the first time... give it a day, and I'll fix it. QuickEdit is better, but still vexes me at times.

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter 29: Earth, Sea and Sky

She was warm when she woke, and heavy. Her limbs felt boneless and leaden. Her whole body ached, but it was not an unpleasant sensation. It felt almost as though she'd spent a day training and collapsed into bed, although she couldn't identify a particularly muscle that hurt. It was almost as though the pain-that-wasn't was superimposed over her whole body, touching and not-touching everything she was.

She was awake.

A frown gathered slowly. She felt her forehead bunching up, the muscles tightening. It was an interesting sort of feeling. Almost-

A shift of heavy fabric distracted her. "Yuffie...?"

The frown mutated just as slowly into a smile. She recognized that voice. "Good morning, Vinnie." Her voice was thick with sleep. She stretched lazily, quite happy with this peaceful little world behind her eyelids. A weight near her hip told her that Vincent had leaned forward onto the bed with one arm - the claw, if she was any judge. She blinked once, and then looked at the gunman properly.

He was pale and drawn. The beginnings of bruised flesh under his eyes marked his exhaustion, but his eyes... Yuffie found her breath catching at the sight of them. She couldn't place what she saw in his expression. She wasn't sure she wanted to.

At the same time, she remembered the blood-red iris widening to fill the white.

"Are we safe?" She asked, at the same time as he asked, "How are you feeling?"

They stared at each other for a moment.

Vincent leaned back into his chair again. "We made it back to buttons and blows. Cid is ill, but he will be fine, we believe." His eyes burned into hers, uncomfortably. "And you?"

Yuffie considered. "I'm... fine. I feel great, actually." She did. There was a strange new energy flowing through her, as though she'd fallen asleep on a battery recharger. There was something wrong with that. She narrowed her eyes thoughtfully, flexing her hands, and blinked as Vincent laid something across them. She looked down.

The Conformer sat there, and was shiny at her.

She let out a sound of surprise and picked it up, holding it tight against her chest, examining it. Vincent - or someone else, she reasoned dubiously - had cleaned it, just like he would his own guns. She opened her mouth to thank him and was cut off by a loud voice, nearly as obnoxious as Cait Sith's.

"Oh, how wonderful - you _are_ awake! I thought perhaps Vincent was finally getting tired of watching you." Yuffie followed Vincent's baleful glare to the speaker. Gold, wavy locks were pulled back and tied atop his head, though several wisps escaped near his forehead and at his ears. His eyes were the green of fresh leaves, but they sparkled delightedly. Yuffie found herself forgiving him - though he'd sounded teasing, it was pretty obvious he meant what he said. Still,

"Who the f--?" She began, but the newcomer silenced her with a waggling of his finger.

"Ah, ah! Wutaian ladies should never use such language." He beckoned to someone across the room and grabbed her wrist impersonally, pressing his fingers against her pulse-point. Yuffie spent a few seconds staring at his right hand, which was missing the tip of its little finger, before his speaking distracted her again. "I'm Saffron, but everyone just calls me Saff. And this is Verde," he added, fluttering his eyelashes at another looming shadow of a man. Yuffie suddenly understood how so many people felt when they first met her: overwhelmed by enthusiasm. It was almost frightening, how sunny this man's personality was.

Verde was obviously used to it. He brushed Saffron aside with weary patience and pressed a hand to Yuffie's forehead while he fumbled with a small bag. "I'm a doctor," he told Yuffie blandly. "Saffron is my assistant."

"I'm a _nurse_, Verde, honestly," Saffron said exasperatedly, snatching the bag off the dark-haired man and immediately pulling out the thermometer he'd been searching for. "He hates the word, thinks it's embarrassing or something," he added to Yuffie with a wink. When she opened her mouth to reply, he popped the thermometer in under her tongue. Yuffie gave up trying to talk - it was like fighting against Grandma Roko in one of her moods, and no one was ever going to win _that_ fight.

- - - - - - -

Vincent watched the two 'medical staff' swarm Yuffie, expressionless. The other members of AVALANCHE had stirred from the table and would be joining them shortly. He vacated his chair ahead of time - Aeris or Tifa would most certainly want to talk to her. Yuffie made a slight sound of protest past the thermometer. He made to walk past the bed head, intending to inform the rest of the group that Yuffie had awakened, but a tug on his cloak made him pause.

He glanced down, espying a familiar half-gloved hand. He followed the pale, skinny arm to its junction at Yuffie's shoulder and wasted a second being surprised at the half-annoyed, half-pleading expression on her face... in her eyes...

With the claw, he reached behind him to snag the chair, dragged it closer, and sat down again.

He almost didn't notice that his right hand had escaped the confines of his cloak, to press Yuffie's cool fingers between his own.

Almost.

_...traitorous hand._

- - - - - - -

They had gathered 'round one end of the trestle table, quiet and worried and paranoid, and Yuffie was resisting the temptation to get her butt in gear, team up with Cait Sith and Reno and make an ungodly racket of the worst (and best) kind. It was only the fact that Cid was still sleeping and she didn't want to wake him.

She'd _never_ not wanted to wake Cid, before. He looked so fragile, now, like when he was awake he ran on some weird supplement provided by smokes and tea that tasted like turpentine, and without them, he was nothing, really. A puppet with its strings cut, or a corpse...

Yuffie bit her lip and resisted the new, stronger urge to bound over to Cid's bedside. Not a corpse. _Definitely_ not a corpse. Un-corpse-like as anything, that was her Cid.

Shit.

Cloud hadn't started talking yet; that was the problem. Once he started being Fearless Leader, it'd get better. He didn't seem to want to be Fearless Leader today, though. It looked to Yuffie like he wanted to be Cling-To-Tifa-and-Avoid-All-Else, but that just wasn't going to cut it as far as the rest of AVALANCHE was concerned, so he was simply sitting, reluctant and tired and unwilling to begin the meeting.

Eventually, he opened his mouth and started talking.

"So. We've already gone over everything we could, but Yuffie, can you make a report?"

Yuffie made a face and tugged on her hair. "I'd say the only thing I saw that other people didn't would be the display room in the lower section of the lab." Her eyes went wide and blank for a moment, and with a short exclamation, she started patting down her pockets. "But if no one's raped or pillaged while I was asleep... ah!"

Triumphantly, she presented them with the two halves of the cracked materia she'd found in the lab. There was a pause. Barret said, "Ain't that just the cracked Leviathan?" He didn't sound impressed. Yuffie pretended like she was going to throw the materia at him.

"No, dorkus. It's a different cracked materia. I found it in one of these big glass cases in the lab. It's definitely a Summon, but I don't know what kind it is."

There was another one of those lengthy pauses, this one involving rather a lot of surprised expressions and raised eyebrows. Barret finally let out an amused snort.

"Hell, we might as well just sit her outside in the rain. What good is she if she doesn't know her materia no more?"

"Hey, at least I _found_ it!" Yuffie was halfway through glaring at him and clenching her fists when she realized he was only joking. Tifa was smiling, and despite their long-standing enmity, even Reno had guffawed. There was an odd sort of closeness despite the tension in the group, today. Was it... because she'd woken up? Yuffie found her lips curving into a pleasantly surprised half-grin. She wondered if Cloud had noticed the same thing when he stopped being mako-poisoned.

She doubted it. Cloud didn't notice _anything_.

"All right, so what happened to _you_, big shot?" She asked of Barret, teasingly. The laughter seemed to disappear, then. The black man looked to Cloud, who grimaced as though he was about to do some unpleasant task.

"We descended three floors to a large room with mako pods, just like in Nibelheim. There were only twenty of them, three of them control pods out the front. A lot of them - well, not a lot," he amended, dithering. "Seven pods were empty, the control pods had crystallized corpses like Nibelheim, and we took eight materia from the pods for you to classify."

Yuffie added up in her head.

"That only makes eighteen pods, Spike."

Cloud smiled grimly, as though he was going to be sick. "Two of the pods were joined."

"...that's _nineteen_. Didn't they teach you to count in SOLDIER school?"

A pause.

Reno made a sound of annoyance. "Jesus, Strife, just tell her."

Yuffie stared between Cloud and Reno, eyes darkening suspiciously. "What is it?" Cloud affixed his gaze firmly to his clenched hands on the tabletop and licked his lips.

"Staniv was in the last pod, with a cracked materia." He didn't look up as Yuffie felt her stomach drop away from her body. "He was all crystallized, but still breathing so we pulled him out. He scratched a message in Wutaian and... fused the materia back together, like Feather did with Shiva, and he stopped breathing. Then the Phoenix-Imbued showed up and broke his... the crystal shattered, Yuffie. He's gone."

And then, in some lame attempt at consoling or mollifying or distracting, he reached forward and put the materia Staniv had fused on the table in front of her.

Yuffie came to the slow, burning realization that her hands were shaking.

"I'm going out."

Her mouth was moving without her, her legs unbending and her arms pushing at the table to free herself from the bench she was sitting on. She had to get out of here. Had to get out before she started crying, before she started screaming, before she tried to stuff the stupid, shiny, scarlet orb down Cloud's _throat_, how _could_ he, didn't he _know_ that she-

"It's Typhon, F.Y.I., and you can _keep it_."

She turned furiously from the table, from the protests, from Tifa's pleading, sorrowful, understanding eyes, her throat raw and her heart already bleeding. She walked past Red, past Elena, past Vincent, feeling the pain swell huge and choking at the back of her tongue.

She went out.

- - - - - - -

Hours later, and she knew he was watching. Had been watching for some time, though she couldn't have said how long he stood behind her in the rain. As soon as he arrived, he had always been there.

"You can come out. I won't bite you."

"I know you won't, Yuffie." He was soaked to the bone just like she was, but it looked so much _worse_ on him; all that limp hair and waterlogged fabric dragging down at him 'til it almost looked like he was attached to the ground by something more tangible than mere gravity.

Yuffie was trying not to think.

Vincent continued hesitantly, picking his way carefully through the rubble in the rain. "I thought perhaps you would prefer to remain undisturbed."

Yuffie turned her head to look at him properly. "If you thought that, why come up at all?"

A flicker in the crimson eyes; she knew not what. "The Imbued are in Midgar. I wished to make certain you were safe."

A sick sort of smile crossed her lips. It made Vincent ill to see it. She wasn't meant to be dull and faded, this way. "I'm not about to go haring off into danger. I don't do that any more." Her eyes met his, cool and serious and bleeding. "And you know I can handle myself. So why come?"

With a silent sigh, Vincent took the few remaining steps and sank gracefully down beside her. The rain sloughed down his saturated cloak, pooling in the dents and hollows in the car door they were using as a bench.

"You fell yesterday. That is not 'handling'." He told her, sensibly. "I am worried for you, and reasonably so. You need not snap at me when I am only here to provide aid should you require it."

"Oh." Yuffie sounded singularly non-thrilled by this. "Is that right? Mm." She pulled her long, skinny legs up beside her, digging in her pocket for a few seconds. Vincent was surprised when she offered the cracked materia to him.

"Here. You take it. _I_ don't want it." She said softly. Her eyes were sad again; she'd given up trying to hide her emotion. Vincent pursed his lips and closed her fingers firmly over the broken orb.

"Keep it," he urged her gently. "I owe you a materia, not the other way around." She stared at him, confusion overriding grief for a few moments. Vincent took it and ran with it. "I was the last one inside, after all."

Stormclouds swirled in her eyes and a heavy silence formed in the cold air. And finally, Yuffie's smile broke, tears glistening in her eyes as she began to laugh. She clutched at his hand, his cloak, leaning her forehead against his shoulder as her own shook with some strange combination of laughter and tears. Vincent tilted his head and looked down at her, curious and compassionate for once in his life. He raised his hand to cup the back of her head, fingers sinking into the dark, saturated locks onto the warm scalp beneath as Yuffie laughed and wept into his shoulder.

"He wrote us a message with the tip of his finger, on steel, nine words. 'Yuffie. Godo. Water God. Keeping. Safe. Now. Hers. Strength.' ... and 'Love'." Yuffie's trembling had ceased, and she raised her face to look at him, cheek still resting against the scarlet fabric. Vincent glanced down into fathomless eyes filled with an emotion he couldn't name, and looked away again hurriedly. The slums were a safer view. He took his hand from her hair, dropped it to his belt to retrieve the Typhon materia Yuffie had earlier spurned.

"He pointed out the break in the materia, and wrote four more words: 'Self. Typhon. Yuffie. Leviathan.' Then, he took the materia, made it whole, and died." He refused to look at her again, though he could feel her gaze on his cheek. "He was completely crystal, then, and the Phoenix-Imbued shattered him when our battle began."

Yuffie let go of his arm, and his hand, and moved back to the other side of the car door. She was confused, and if truth be told, a little irritated. Dying was all very well, but couldn't anybody leave her a _decent_ message? 'Person X is responsible for this; you can find them Here, and you have to do This'. Was that too much to ask? They'd all been more than happy to order her around while they were alive...

_Self. Typhon. Yuffie. Leviathan._

"What does it mean?" She whispered plaintively to no one in particular. Vincent shrugged, standing slowly.

"Staniv believed you would understand. Sooner or later, you will." He stood there for a few moments, staring out at the slums. "It is cold. You should come back inside, soon."

"Mmm." Yuffie agreed absently. "I'm going to think for a while, first. I always think better in the rain." She tilted her head back, unblinking despite the heavy droplets. An obvious dismissal. Vincent turned, watching her for brief moments, and bowed his head. His hair slithered wetly forward to curtain his face.

"I am sorry, Yuffie."

And she smiled at the sky sadly, gratefully, as he began to walk back toward the bunker.

"I know, Vinnie. You've really gotta stop that, one day."

Vincent's shoulder's stiffened, but he did not look back.

Inside the bunker, he hesitated with his hand on the door to the staircase. Then he drew up a chair and sat with his back to the door. He would be here, if she had need of him.

Chaos agreed.

- - - - - - -

_Vincent stood atop Da Chao, cupped in the highest of the god's many palms. He faced the air rather than the mountainside; Staniv stood on Da Chao's outstretched fingertips. It seemed to Vincent that the man surely should have fallen. He was on the wrong side of the balance required to stay where he was._

_As though to prove him wrong, Staniv's sharp mouth curved into a smile. Pointedly, he took a dancing step backwards, until he stood on nothing but air. He stood still for a few moments, eyeing Vincent thoughtfully, and then - with a step all too obviously lighter than air - darted swiftly to the Da Chao's summit, the crown of the highest head._

_Once there, Staniv spread his arms, bowed, and dissolved, as though he had been nothing but a simulacrum of compressed dust. For a moment, Vincent sensed a presence in the wind that carried him, but then it was gone._

_He turned to descend the mountain, crossing first the wrist and then the elbow before Da Chao's extremities joined with the bulk of the mountain and he followed the twisting, many-limbed path. His boots did not ring against the stone; he was wearing _geta_ instead. A glance at his forearms revealed the same shifting confusion of a previous dream._

_Chaos' voice rumbled through the mountain beneath his feet, and Vincent shuddered. He couldn't hear its words. That they were there was enough. He put the limbs that could loosely be classified as his arms at his sides, and out of his immediate sight._

_By the time he reached the foot of the mountain, the sun was sinking swiftly toward the horizon. He could hardly see it through the taller trees; he walked faster toward the river, peering curiously at the filtered sunlight. He did not know why, but he wanted to see the sun set._

_A trickle of water, like laughter, distracted him. Yuffie stood thigh-deep in the river, a bright smile on her face. She, too, faced the sunset, one arm extended to the air, another towards Vincent. Trusting in his dream that she would not pull him into the river, he laid his 'palm' across hers. She smiled, eyes a deep ruby red, and stared even more fiercely at the sun, unblinking. Staniv's body collected, like a sandcastle swept away in reverse, and grasped Yuffie's other hand. He, too, turned to face the sun. Following their lead, Vincent turned his head--_

_A dragon swept in from the west, scarlet and glowing with the colours of the sunset. Vincent felt his breath leave him. It circled the village thrice, a spiral of blood red against the clouded sky, and finally soared away toward the north, the east. Vincent, exhilarated, looked back toward his companions._

_Staniv's dark eyes shone with amusement, and he filtered away on the wind again. This time, Vincent was paying enough attention to notice a great... something... he squinted at the departing form of Staniv, and felt Yuffie's hand slipping from his own._

_His eyes snapped back toward her and widened. Though before her kimono had been tugged at by the water of the river, now her entire body swayed and shimmered with it. As he watched, she melted away into the surface of the river, still chuckling happily along with the water._

_Vincent was left staring at the ripples, and a pair of unblinking scarlet eyes beneath the wavelets._

- - - - - - -

"Vincent. Vincent? Hey, Vinnie, you really shouldn't go to sleep in wet clothes."

Vincent cracked his eyes open slowly, shutting them almost immediately as the light stabbed at his retina. He made an interrogative, incoherent sound, and tried again. Yuffie's face blurred into view above him, biting her lip as though trying not to laugh. The room was dimly lit, but his eyes ached as though he'd been staring at the sun.

"You're cute when you wake up slow," Yuffie commented with a grin. "Come on, monster man. If you're that tired, you oughta go have a shower first. I bet that chair's gonna rot away now you've dripped all over it."

Vincent stared blankly at her for a few seconds, then gathered himself enough to look down at the chair. His neck ached where it had been craned over the back of the wooden furniture, which was indeed water-stained and creaking. Hastily, he tried to put his limbs into some sort of order, but the slumber had left him feeling fogged and ungainly. He barely managed to sit up straight, and sat with his hand covering his eyes for a few seconds before he felt compelled to do anything else.

Yuffie's voice was worried in the darkness behind his eyes. "You feeling all right, Vinnie?" She sounded dubious. "Should I go get someone? Pretty girl like me can't lug you down the stairs all on my lonesome..." She made a concerted effort, though, slipping her skinny arm under his raised elbow and tugging persistently at him to stand. Vincent removed his hand and shook his head, brushing her away wearily.

"No, Yuffie. I am... fine. Dreams. Nothing but the dreams."

She frowned then, crouched beside him with one hand on his knee. "You've been having dreams again – nightmares?" She pressed, when he looked away, focusing blearily on the wall opposite. "Like—?" The coffin, and Nibelheim, hung unspoken between them.

Vincent shook his head heavily and pushed himself to his feet.

"No. Nothing like that." He sighed and forced a calmer expression onto his face before he faced her. "Perhaps you are right and I should sleep more."

Yuffie stood slowly and put one hand on her hip, exasperated. "Well, whatever, Vinnie. When you fall asleep, sopping wet - and _freezing_, I might add, 'cause your hand's like ice, monster man – I'd say that's a pretty good indication you need to get a sight more shut-eye than you have been." She had raised one eyebrow now, daring him to disagree. Usually he would have ignored the challenge, but this evening...

He formed a similar expression of wryness with effort. "Perhaps I would sleep easier if you would stop knocking yourself unconscious so regularly," he replied tartly, and opened the door for her goldfish expression before she could come up with a scathing retort. "If I need rest, then certainly, you must as well."

She was on the stairs before she realized she'd obeyed him without question, and by then it was too late.

- - - - - - -

A/N: Phew! That chapter was hard. Which is odd, because I like writing fluff best of all... I do enjoy obscure dream sequences, though. How many bits and pieces have you guys put together, yet?

Next chapter, much ado about Cid. It's characters like Saffron that drive authors to drink.

**Demeter** – I don't know if you'll read this again, but that has to be the cutest mental image ever. And I must draw it. :pictures the chibi-ness in girlish delight:

**SilverKnight** – Ahaha, I don't know if it counts as originality when it just appears there with no prior warning. I must blame Galian Beast itself for that one. :strokes its pretty purple head:

**JML** - :dead: Rebirth of plants? You know, I think that might even work. It doesn't even matter, really, because I have the Amegami behind it now... but 'rebirth of plants'? Rain, fire, sunshine or blood. It couldn't be more fitting... I love you forever for this information! Thankyou!

**Kit Thespian** – Only four? ;D It's terrible getting writer's block at the end of a story. My poor readers of "Wings of Steel"... And the people in this world know who Jesus is, because a lot of people in the game say 'God' or 'Gawd' or some variant a lot, and therefore they probably know about Jesus, too. (Besides, Christianity seems to crop up everywhere. I'm sure the Cetra somewhere dragged it over from a separate planet or something.)


	30. Interlude

Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII or anything in it. I do own everything in this storyline you haven't seen in FFVII. (The list of individuals is getting far too long.)

A/N: Before we begin, I'd like to make an **ANNOUNCEMENT**. The good news: you get this chapter two days early. The bad news: the rest of the fic is postponed indefinitely. That is, my mother has decided that I should stop writing. She's taking away my computer access for a month. This means that not only will you not get the next part in two weeks, as I had hoped, but also, the chapter will not be written in two weeks because I find it difficult to write when I'm not at my desk, at my computer-- this is the only place I have where I can be alone and just write.

So, my apologies for the inconvenience. I will try my damnedest to upload from random additional PCs, but no promises. I'd give you all my mother's e-mail address if I thought it would help, but it won't.

Also, apologies for the random Cid chapter. I don't know where it came from. It's just here.

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter 30: Interlude 

It was very early morning. Light filtered dimly into buttons and blows through cleverly disguised skylights in the rubble, giving the whole place a foggy, indistinct feel. Cid, lying just this side of insensate in the bed he had claimed two days ago, wondered if this haziness was at all related to the fact that his lungs felt like he was breathing glass.

That might have been an exaggeration, he allowed after a moment. They were just... extremely sensitive. The air he was breathing was a little chilly, and it seemed to cut into his windpipe a little more than it probably should have. It was probably the sharp contrast, he decided, between the air and his body temperature, which was probably pretty high, given that he also felt as though he was covered in a few more pounds of blanket than was strictly necessary. He made to fling them off, but the best he could muster from his arms was a brief straining against the weight before their strength abandoned him.

The fact that the movement of his own arms seemed to be very far away from his mind hammered home the fact that he was either completely exhausted, on some sort of drug, or possibly both. He considered this for a few moments, a hazy picture of what he remembered of the previous day forming in his mind, before the sound of soft footfalls distracted him. His eyes, which had been open a crack, closed of their own accord, as though his few minutes' wakefulness had already exhausted them. He tried to open them again, but his eyelids put up a fierce resistance at first.

A fond sort of sigh reached his ears, followed by a near-silent chuckle. Cid tried once again to open his eyes, and was rewarded with a sliver of shadowy vision. There was a tall, curly-haired shadow standing almost at his elbow, one hand on its hip. It was facing away from his bedside, so Cid strained a little, managed to shift his head a fraction, and caught sight of what the figure _was_ looking at – a dark-haired stranger sitting in the chair at Cid's own bedside, his chin solidly at rest just below his collar bone.

The shadow said, "Verde...?" The tone was a little resigned, as though the man wasn't really expecting a response. He wasn't disappointed; Verde, the man in the chair, didn't move a muscle. The shadow, whom Cid now identified as Saffron, one of the men who'd held him down and given him shots the previous day, dropped his hand away from his hip and moved toward Verde's sleeping form. There was the slight drag of a chair along the ground. Saffron hefted its weight higher and paused, a little guiltily.

"Ver-de-muffin?"

Cid had to hold his breath to stifle a snort, but the blond man didn't seem to notice. Neither did Verde. He was truly asleep, despite the weird angle his neck was at. When Cid could control his amusement enough to breathe properly again, he opened his eyes a crack to resume his spying. Saffron had placed the chair he'd been carrying near Verde's feet, but rather than sit down on it, he knelt. There was a moment of silence.

"_Phhh._ What exactly did you _do_ with the foot deodorant I bought you?" Saffron muttered. "This doesn't smell like Mello-licious Musk to _me_."

His eyes were soft as he spoke, a soft smile on his lips that reminded Cid suddenly of Shera.

Gently, he laid Verde's feet on the second chair, scooting him forward a little in the chair he'd been sitting in. Swiping most of the bedclothes from the next bed over (patchwork), Saffron tossed the quilt deftly over the sleeping man and slipped the thinning pillow behind Verde's shoulders. Gently, he cupped Verde's face in his hands and tilted his head slowly backward to rest on the pillow. Verde frowned in his sleep.

Cid felt an ache begin in his throat as he watched Saffron stroke his lover's hair, the disgruntled expression melting from Verde's features. God, he missed Shera. His eyes stung and he had to sniff fiercely and clear his throat to mask it. Saffron's eyes were warm as they passed seamlessly from Verde's face to Cid's.

"Good morning, sunshine," he greeted the surprised and slightly guilty-looking pilot lowly, careful not to wake Verde. "How are you feeling? You've been out for about thirty hours, give or take, with four hours since your last shots. Nothing else has been done around here since you got back, but your ninja friend woke up yesterday."

Cid opened his mouth to make his demands known, and coughed instead.

Saffron tilted his head thoughtfully. With one final trace of his fingers down the length of Verde's nose - a movement that causedthe pilot to suddenly take note of the fact thatabout half of Saffron's pinkie was missing -he moved to Cid's bedside and poured the pilot a glass of water. He batted patiently at Cid's hand as he made a grab for it, instructing instead, "Just sip, don't gulp. Stretching your throat too much might irritate it." Cid reluctantly obeyed. He'd been planning on just a mouthful, anyway, but after the first mouthful he realized just how thirsty he'd been. Saffron removed the glass when he was halfway through it, smirking a little.

"That'll do for the moment. We don't want you getting sick, do we, dear heart?" He patted Cid companionably on the arm, ignoring Cid's scowl – presumably with the aid of long practice. "Now. Is there anything I can get for you?"

Grimly, Cid nodded. "A PHS."

* * *

The shrilling of the PHS seemed exceptionally loud in the darkness of five-in-the-morning Rocket Town. The screen strobed bright blue between piercing beeps. From beneath a tangled mound of bedclothes, a hand emerged, followed by an arm. Unerringly, it found its way to the blinking, shrieking thing on the nightstand, and dragged it into the depths of the blankets.

Though what could be heard from outside the blankets was very muffled, it was clearly very annoyed. Shera Highwind was Not A Morning Person. What could be heard from outside the blankets was, "Dhh hhg hgg _nnee_ dhja't mmm'dzz?"

What Shera was actually saying was, "Do you have _any_ idea what time it is?"

It was not how she normally answered the PHS, particularly when her husband had recently been in mortal peril, but, as has previously been stated, Shera Highwind was Not A Morning Person. Also, it would have been impossible to live in the same house as the Captain for as long as she had without picking up _something_.

Faintly, over the crackling and hissing of static, Shera could hear delighted laughter and then a hacking cough. She squinted tiredly into the blackness of the blankets that surrounded her.

"Cid? Is that you?"

"_-khak!- Hey, baby! –khork! khak! khoh!-_"

Shera closed her eyes. "What the hell is wrong with you? It's... it's..." Here, she poked her head briefly out of the covers to stare vaguely in direction of the clock on the nightstand. It was old, an analogue, and did not have glow-in-the-dark handles, so looking was an utterly futile exercise. "...too damn early," she finished confidently. "The _sun's_ not even up yet."

"_How are you?"_

"Sleeping," Shera groused. If it hadn't been pitch black underneath the blankets, an observer might have been able to see a hint of a smile. "You're obviously all right, so go back to sleep and call me at an hour when the universe should actually _exist_."

The muffled conversation thus concluded, the arm extended itself once again to the nightstand, to slam the PHS down on its stand. The clock fell to the ground with a forlorn sort of 'ding'.

There was a sound that could have been a giggle or a sob, or both, and then – mere moments later – deep, even breathing.

* * *

Cid held the phone away from his ear and stared at Saffron, an expression of amusement and wounded disbelief of his face.

"She hung up!"

Saffron's eyes twinkled in either merriment or chagrin as he reached for the PHS. "Sounds like the love of your life to me." Amusement won out.

Cid grinned. "Yup." He coughed a few times, hoarsely, and stared at the ceiling with an expression he would have called stupid and soppy were it on anyone else's face.

Saffron patted his arm again, his earlier annoyance returning. "Now, go to sleep, dear heart, before you wake Verde and I am forced to kill you."

Cid probably would have protested, but Saffron had sensibly flushed several interesting chemicals into his system via a convenient vein in the back of his hand, and he was out like a light.

* * *

A/N: I know, a short and useless sort of chapter. But really, you know you love Cid/Shera. You _know _you do.

**Ruri-sugar – **I know you won't reach this chapter for some time... but I'm glad you're enjoying it, and honoured you'd stay up so late just to read this. I hope you enjoyed your prom.

**Piccolo999** – Glad the Vincent dialogue wasn't as bad as I thought it was. I kept having the feeling I'd accidentally slipped in some 'dear boy's and haughty references to ineffability.

**NeonRaine** – I wish I could keep up this pace, but I can't. I decided enough was enough and you should have as much as I have, but proceedings have halted the next chapter. :sigh: I'm trying to update every two weeks, but I'm not sure it'll be possible at the rate the next part is going. I've been working on it for about a month and a half.

**AshCarroll** – There is Rude/Elena coming, but there are also several truckloads of angst. 'Ware, treachery! (Well, not really. But I've always liked that phrase.)

**Romm** – You're certainly getting closer, but you're not there yet. But don't worry. Everything will be explained, quite soon.

**DemonSurfer** – Now, now, you can't be mentioned EVERY chapter; if I responded to everyone the notes would be longer than the chapter. But now you mention it, the dragons didn't match up quite right in my head. So... Ryyu-chan's Imbuing is probably slightly AU. :cough: I'll explain that, anyway.


	31. Fragile Things

Disclaimer: Everything you saw in the game belongs to Square-Enix. Everything you didn't see before this fic belongs to me. Don't own the song, either. Or, since Elena just had to bring it up, _The Idea of Perfection_, which has to be the single most BORING book ever written. The cement was the _interesting_ part! TT

A/N: If I could only express to you how frustrating it was to write this chapter, I would. As it is, you're just going to have to take my word for it. Possibly, my reviewer responses are therefore harsher than strictly necessary. Possibly, you got what you asked for.

Also: HAHAHAHA, WATCH ME BREAK MY COMPUTER CURFEW FOR YOUR BENEFIT AND THE SAKE OF KEEPING TO MY UPDATE PLAN! Enjoy, guys.

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter 31: Fragile Things

_Hold on to me, love.  
__You know I can't stay long.  
__All I wanted to say was  
__"I love you, and I'm not afraid."  
-- _"My Last Breath" Evanescence

Considerably later in the day, Cid was still happily deep in enforced slumber. The rest of AVALANCHE were using their opportunity to rest and recover from their encounter with the Imbued.

The Turks, minus Elena, were sleeping. The blonde was sitting between Rude's bed and Verde's bed, where the doctor was deeply engrossed in a book. Elena had evidently decided to dedicate the files she'd recovered on the Imbued to memory, as she was staring so fiercely at the screen that, had she been the Phoenix-Imbued, it probably would have burst into flame. Several beds away, Reno snored loudly.

Yuffie was lying on her stomach in the yellow bed, pretending to sleep. She'd collapsed into the bed the night before, grateful for the warmth after being outside in the rain for so long, but had found herself unable to drift off. Staniv's words, his expectation, weighed heavy on her mind. Even with the catalyst of the rain, she had no idea what his last words to her had meant.

Red XIII was curled at the foot the bed Yuffie 'slept' in. He had earlier been informed by Verde that it would not do to sleep in the bed itself because, despite the fact that Saffron rarely used it and the bedclothes were always kept fresh and ready for company, Saffron was almost frighteningly finnicky when it came to animal hair. Red XIII had decided it was best to keep on Saffron's good side, as the man's claws were nearly as long as his own. He was sprawled on his back, utterly relaxed. Occasionally, his tail flared.

Saffron himself was chatting animatedly (albeit in hushed tones) with Tifa, who had taken up vigil at Cid's bedside. She was grinning helplessly, occasionally grabbing at Cloud's arm. If the blonde's uncomfortable blush was any indication, conversation had taken a turn towards a certain infiltration of Don Corneo's mansion.

Aeris, having dozed comfortably for nearly an hour after she usually woke, was looking cheerfully groggy as she sat at one end of the trestle table. Sephiroth had attempted his own braid before she had awoken, unfortunately causing it to kink in the wrong directions for a centred braid. She had tried wetting it and combing it out, but in the end she had settled on braiding it sideways (as he had done, accidentally) so that it would wrap neatly about his neck and keep out of his way. Sephiroth seemed pleased enough with this, and was sitting behind Feather, offering the poor girl advice.

Barret and Cait Sith had taken it upon themselves to teach her how to play poker, and had dragged Vincent into the game. Obviously, this was not going so well. Vincent had the perfect poker face, but no desire to play, Barret couldn't bluff to save himself and was equally hopeless at explaining things, and Cait Sith kept trying to give Feather hints in terms of probability. The young woman had a look of abject confusion on her face as she made a move, which promptly became slight panic as both Barret and Cait immediately made sounds of dissent and exasperation. Vincent merely sighed heavily and stared absently into space.

But whilst Sephiroth provided a calming influence for Feather, he only disturbed Barret; enough that the bear-like man eventually flung down his cards.

"'Nuff of this," he muttered darkly. "I'm goin' to visit Marlene."

He stormed away from the table, slamming the door to the staircase behind him.

* * *

Aeris' voice stopped him halfway up the stairs. He shifted to face her, squinting in the dimness of the passage. She looked pale, even in the darkness.

"You want to come with?" He asked, having expected as much. "Elmyra'd be real happy t' see ya." He hadn't expected the disappointment on her face, the sudden reticence that was so completely unlike Aeris it took him off-guard.

"No... I don't think that's a good idea." Her voice was low, strained. Barret frowned at her.

"You all right?"

Aeris looked at him for a long time, trying to smile, but failing. She shook her head. "No. I'm not. But I will be, I hope." She closed her eyes, then, trying to hide the sadness welling there. "Please don't tell her about me, Barret. If something should happen to me before all this is done... she shouldn't have to grieve twice."

The black man stared at her for a long moment, a terrible suspicion dawning in the back of his mind.

"Yeah," he muttered finally, and found his voice cracking. He cleared his throat. "Yeah. Sure."

* * *

_I know you hear me.  
__I can taste it in your tears.  
_-- "My Last Breath" Evanescence

* * *

"Tell you what," Cait Sith suggested brightly. "Why don't we play 'Fish'?"

Sephiroth thought this was a good idea. Poker seemed altogether too difficult for Feather to grasp - or at least, too difficult for Cait Sith and himself to explain to her. Vincent was still waiting for his turn. His eyes had drifted closed and he had tilted his head back slightly to face the ceiling. Sephiroth wondered idly if he was actually going to fall asleep like that, and doubted it. Although, he reflected, it was possible; he hadn't actually noticed the change in the game yet.

Past Vincent's tragically bored profile, Sephiroth caught a flash of pink as Aeris closed the door to the stairwell behind her. She seemed discouraged for some reason. He frowned slightly.

She had followed Barret out. Barret had spoken of visiting Marlene. Marlene was his daughter, and lived with Aeris' foster mother, Elmyra. Hmm.

Sephiroth stood. "I am sure Cait Sith can teach you to play 'Go Fish'. I have something to attend to." Feather looked back at him and nodded dubiously. Vincent cracked one eye open, briefly. It dropped closed again as Sephiroth walked away across the room, to where Aeris had sat down upon her bed.

She didn't seem to notice his approach, first pulling her braid over her shoulder to undo the tie, then reaching up behind her head to loosen the ribbon until chestnut tumbled about her shoulders. Her eyes were closed, her face troubled, as he drew level with her. They opened in startlement when he sat down on the bed next to hers, and the springs creaked.

"Is something wrong?" He inquired, and waited. Aeris stared at him for a long moment, then dropped her head forward wearily.

"I'm not sure..." she whispered, sounding lost and exhausted. This concerned Sephiroth. Aeris was rarely openly unhappy in this manner. She was relied upon to be buoyant and cheerful. It reassured her friends, aided her allies. Perhaps, Sephiroth reflected as he looked at her, that role wore on her more than she often let on. She raised a hand to the side of her head, scrunching the hair as though to relieve a headache.

"I'm just not sure why I'm here." The words burst from her throat, as though she had been restraining them for some time. "When I was a part of the Lifestream, I _knew_ things. I could hear the Planet perfectly, _understand_ her perfectly. But now, part of this world again, _human_ again-- I can't!" She spoke in a hasty whisper-scream, frantic, but almost desperate that she should not be overheard. "I can't help anyone, here. All I know... _all I know_ is that I have to find a way to restore the Planet's children to her. _I don't know what we have to do._"

Sephiroth found that it disturbed him to see the Cetra so close to tears. Uncomfortably, he leaned forward, elbows on his knees, staring at her down-turned face intently.

"We do not know either, Aeris. But we are trying. We will find out." Sephiroth was a little surprised to find himself speaking; even more so to see her eyes peeking up at him from behind a fringe of burnished copper. "The Planet put her faith in you, and you are obviously more use to her, and us, alive-- or she would have left you... as you were."

_As I was_, he added in his head. A thought struck him, and he tried to smile at it.

"Perhaps you have already done everything that was required of you. Perhaps I should fret over our situation, in your place."

Aeris smiled, weakly, eyes glimmering with unshed tears. "I don't think you could fret if you wanted to," she told him, honestly. Sephiroth smirked.

"Obviously, you did not march with me in Wutai. The marshes along the mountains are truly something to be feared." This elicited a surprised-sounding giggle, and Aeris straightened a little bit.

"Well then, I'll leave all the fretting to you." She tucked a few strands of chestnut behind her ear and regarded him for a moment, thoughtfully.

"What is it?"

She tugged absently at her hair, silent for a moment.

"There are a lot of things I haven't done, yet," she murmured. "I hope..." Sephiroth waited. She bit her lip, and shook her head, closing her eyes in a smile of resignation. When she opened them again, they were as cheerful - or as faux-cheerful - as they had been before.

"I think I'll go see how Cid's doing. He should be waking up soon."

She scooped her hair backward with her hands, tying it neatly with a pink ribbon that was, surely, almost as old as she was. Sephiroth spent a few moments admiring the art he'd never been able to master as she braided it deftly, then swept it back over her shoulder.

"You want to come with? Maybe we can play poker while we wait."

Sephiroth couldn't recall saying anything, but his expression must have said it all. Laughing, Aeris grabbed both of his hands and whisked him off to take over Cloud and Tifa's post beside the old pilot.

As it turned out, there was no need to replace them. Cid was stirring groggily, and when he woke, he would first have several choice phrases for Saffron, and second have one demand about where they would head next:

Rocket Town.

* * *

Barret was still in the ruins of the slums, but he could already smell the flowers that bloomed around Elmyra's house, mingled with the almost overpowering scent of the rain.

He'd always suspected that was Aeris' doing, actually. Elmyra didn't garden; not really. Sure, she'd sit out in the sun with Marlene, both of them in their ridiculous straw hats and sunglasses, Marlene's gloves nearly up to her elbows, but she never really did any honest _gardening_. Actually, if truth be told, she seemed to leave most of it up to Marlene...

He paused as the house came into view, wandering slowly up the lane. He'd never quite known how Elmyra had managed to score such a beautiful house, or why she suffered Barret and his daughter to live there. He supposed it was loneliness, and he could sympathise. He knew what it was like to lose family.

Barret hesitated at the gate, a thoughtful frown upon his face. It was cold; the rain made his battered old vest stick to him. He thrust his hand into his pocket.

When he'd lost his wife... the only word he could think of was 'devastated', and he still didn't think that did it justice, even after all these years. He'd lost everything to Shinra. _Everything_. The woman he loved, the town he'd lived in all his life, the friendship and respect of the people he'd lived with all his life; he'd lost it all.

All except a baby girl who didn't have a home any more, didn't have a family any more. A baby girl who was just as displaced as he had been, back then. And he'd taken care of her, and somehow (hell if he knew how, she wasn't even a year old), she'd done the same for him. She'd managed, with her childish grace and innocence, to patch up the aching rawness in his soul.

Marlene quite literally meant the world to Barret.

He didn't like to talk about the past, and so he'd always assumed it would be the same for Elmyra. She had lost her husband, after all, and then to lose the daughter she'd adopted... Aeris must have played a similar role in Elmyra's life to Marlene's in his own, he knew.

Sometimes, he wondered if they'd been adopted into Elmyra's life to fill the hole the Cetra had left.

He came to the realization he'd been staring upward fiercely, focusing on the light in the window, when a shadow moved behind the glass. Barret spotted Elmyra's surprised, delighted face for the briefest of moments through the fogged glass before she vanished. If the falling rain hadn't been so loud, if it hadn't been muffled by the walls of the house, he probably could have heard her calling to Marlene, telling her that Papa was home.

In a matter of moments, the front door cracked open, and Marlene's big brown eyes appeared around the edge of the wood paneling. A smile split her face, a yell of delight split the air, and the six year old thundered down the garden path to hurl herself at her father.

Barret pushed the gate open just in time to catch the girl one-armed, only just managing to remain upright as Marlene impacted, flinging tiny arms around his neck. "Papa!" She had not quite mastered the fine art of hugging, so Barret's only immediate response was a choking sound and a pat on the back. Then, wishing vaguely that he could massage his throat and grinning fiercely, he hefted her weight slightly higher and hurried up the path to the front door, where Elmyra was waiting, a little more pragmatically. She had towels.

"How's things?" He asked Elmyra, ruffling Marlene's now-wet hair. The woman smiled at him, pushing the door back with her shoulders to allow him into the house and then swooping forward to wrap one towel around his shoulders, and another around Marlene, who giggled.

"Fine," she told him with a peaceful smile. "Just fine."

* * *

Saffron had to actually grab her shoulder and shake her a little before Elena paid him any attention at all. She'd been absorbed in case files, plucking detail after detail and assembling the big picture in her head. When he'd grabbed her shoulder, she glared at him before she could stop herself: he'd made her drop a piece.

Saffron, of course, paid no attention to her irritated glance. "Your pilot friend's awake," he informed her with a smile. "And Cloud says you're moving to Rocket Town, day after tomorrow." He grinned. "If we listened to Mr Pilot, it would be right now, but Verde made him stay put."

"Oh," Elena said, blinking owlishly. "Thanks, I guess. Cid's okay, then?"

Saffron nodded, and peeked curiously over her shoulder at the file she'd been reading through. "You'll get square eyes if you stare at that much longer," he chastised her, poking the tip of his tongue through his teeth to show he was kidding. "What's so interesting about it?"

Elena yawned. "Nothing's interesting, exactly, but this might help us later on. I'm trying to memorise as much as I can."

Saffron blinked, read a few lines over her shoulder, and made a face. "Well, dear heart, good luck to you. I'd just as soon read about cement."

Elena smirked despite herself, memories of high school surfacing. "Oh, it's really more interesting than people give it credit for. See, it never really _sets_--"

Saffron held up his hands. "I can see you have work to be getting on with, and Verde and I do have a patient to attend to, after all..." He protested, pushing himself away from the back of her chair. He turned, paused, and then looked back at her over his shoulder.

"One more thing..." He turned to face her completely, twining a few golden strands around his fingertips. "Dear heart, will you do a favour for me? You, and Mr. Rude... watch over Reno, hmm? He needs looking after. Ever since he joined the Turks, why, it's been one thing after another."

Elena's brows knit, and she was about to launch furious protest, but Saffron stopped her with a gesture.

"It's so much harder to rely on people when you're freelance. I should know." A curl slipped free, revealing the stump of his severed finger. "All he's ever needed are a few good friends."

Elena stared, open-mouthed, as Saffron sauntered away across the hall. Eventually, she pursed her lips. A wry smile wandered across them. "He's certainly got that," she murmured, glancing fondly at the bed to her right, where Rude was still sound asleep.

He looked much less forbidding this way, she thought warmly, settling her hands over her keyboard once more. Once the harsh lines of his sunglasses were laid aside, he was rendered surprisingly soft in appearance. Without the glasses, his jaw retreated from 'square' to 'strong', the narrowness of his cheekbones from 'gaunt' to something a little more appealing.

Elena liked how open Rude was, when he slept.

At the corner of her vision, her monitor switched to a screen-saver, dragging her attention back to it. She tapped her finger on the mouse-pad and re-read the file she'd been on before Saffron's interruption.

It was strange, the things she was reading. Almost as if it were lucky that any Imbued existed at all. According to the files – some of which she had only now had the opportunity to read in detail – the desired result had only been yielded with Summon materia, and only through trial and error by Professor Gast. Later, Hojo had written file upon file detailing his theories on the matter. He had assumed that three major conditions had to be fulfilled to properly Imbue a human with the essence of what he sarcastically, even in report form, referred to as 'gods'.

Firstly, the human in question needed to have a high spirit level – a high level of magical resistance. This would presumably act as a buffer between the consciousness of the Summon and the human subject, so that the more powerful Summon wouldn't seize total control of the human shell. There had been several incidents where this condition had not been adhered. Elena had read the account and decided that the attached folder of high-resolution digital images should probably remain classified.

The second condition was the status of the materia itself. The subjects fared better physically and mentally when the materia in question had been Mastered – another buffer, Elena assumed, since Mastering by nature gave a human complete control over materia. However, the materia used had to be the original Summon – the materia from which all others of similar class would be born.

_It is possible that the very act of Mastering removes the essence of the legendary 'Planet's children' from the materia that is born, dulling the knowledge of the Ancients with time,_ the report's words echoed through her mind in Hojo's nasal voice, clipped, precise and completely unfeeling but for vague skepticism. She grit her teeth and kept reading.

The third condition had to do with the showering process. Not just any mako would do, the reports assured her. Only mako from the source font of the Summon materia would yield a perfect Imbued. The familiar mako running through the human veins would provide the perfect conduit so that the consciousness and power of the 'god' could be transferred.

Elena cracked her knuckles absent-mindedly, staring at the monitor, but not really seeing it.

All these things had to be done to make the perfect Imbued... but this was Hojo saying so, in retrospect. Did that mean that the Imbued they were up against _weren't_ perfect? Her eyes caught on another sentence, about unMastered materia:

_Since unMastered materia responds less readily to the will of a human, it is only logical to assume that a human Imbued with such will either receive very little power, or an over-abundance, resulting in a lack of control on the part of the human subject. Given the unfortunate fates of several of the early Ifrit-Imbued (though truthfully, only the case with the first materia can be taken seriously), the latter is most probably the case._

Elena swore under her breath and closed her laptop with a snap. "This just gets better and better, doesn't it?"

* * *

A/N: Thanks go to Elena and Saffron, for cooperating. There was going to be more to this chapter, but then Tifa started rambling and I suddenly had a lot more to do... so I decided to save that for next time, seeing's this took forever and a day by itself.

**DemonSurfer** – Sounds interesting, though I can't see Vincent as a thief except in the line of duty... and I'm not sure whether a master SOLDIER would be tested on thieves unless they stole something really, really important. Like, I don't know, Rufus and seven mako reactors. Maybe they can take out reactor cores, or something, and hold them for ransom... or sell them to the AVALANCHE members you haven't mentioned (er, Aeris and Cait Sith – maybe Reeve is in on it!) so they're helping AND making a profit. :will stop writing your story in her head, now:

**Emri** - :smiles merrily, hands Emri-chan another cookie, and twirls away: Oh, and you may have missed something, but it was omitted because I wasn't in the mood for gore: Titan was sick to death of the twins' failures, so he culled them.

**The Dr.** – Typhon has already _been_ included, less than five chapters ago. I'm not including things just because you demand them; this fic has been in the works for three years and every character has a pre-planned part to play. And if you're going to be grouchy because I won't spoil things for you, or ask that you pay attention for yourself, then I'd _prefer_ you didn't review.

**Navi the Rabid Pixie** – Why? Why must you use that dreaded name! "Hey!" "Listen!" I wanted to jam her into a bottle and throw her into Dodongo's Cavern and _let the Goron race starve._ :breathes heavily: Er, I mean, I know it'll be ages before you get to this, but... as of your ch. 6 review, Aeris _does_ have a reason for being back.


	32. Just a Dream

Disclaimer: Don't own anything from FFVII; that belongs to Square-Enix. Do own everything else.

A/N: Work is slowly killing me. That's really all you need to know. This is evidenced by the appearance of a deed to Yuffie's right leg; credit to an Aurikku fic whose title I've forgotten.

This chapter is mostly Tifa and Vincent – which reminds me. The dream sequence ends on a disturbing note. No spoilers, but it's not nice, and it's not pretty. I have tried to get the horror across without overdoing the graphic nature of the scene, but I'm not sure how well I succeeded, so proceed with caution. There's a reason for that rating up there, after all. :points:

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter 32: Just A Dream 

Tifa stirred lazily, content for the moment to lie in the warmth of a bed that was surprisingly comfortable, since it wasn't hers. Tone, she decided, must have spent a lifetime seeking out and acquiring the comfiest beds the Planet had to offer. There was no other explanation for the sheer strength-sapping relaxation this bed seemed to exert. She rolled halfway onto her back, one hand raised to mash unconcernedly at the strands of hair tickling her face. The skylight above her head told her it was afternoon bordering on evening – she'd slept for about five hours.

Her fingers sifted absently through her hair as she watched the inside of the skylight's shaft. She could hear people talking – Aeris and Yuffie were loudest, but she though she could hear the occasional comment from Cid over the giggling. Elsewhere, Reno sounded like he was trying to refrain from killing Saffron, as he and his partner laughed at the Turk's expense. Over at the tables, she could hear Cait Sith's high-pitched yowl and Red's more modulated, rumbling tones. Curiously, she raised herself on her elbows and peeked through her hair at them: Reeve, Feather and Vincent were sitting together, and it looked like they were holding cards. She raised an eyebrow as Cait asked, smugly, "Any aces?" and Vincent absently flicked him a card.

It'd probably be better if she didn't ask, she decided.

She pushed her fringe out of her eyes with one hand, looking around for Cloud. She smiled as soon as she found him: fast asleep a couple of beds away and snoring softly, his hair at even stranger angles than usual. She pushed herself fully upright so she could see him better. She was so glad he was getting some rest at last. Cloud tended not to sleep when he was worried, but he'd obviously reached the point of no return. If that was true, Tifa thought, he'd probably sleep 'til morning and be hungry enough to eat a Chocobo herd when he woke up. Tifa hoped Tone's storeroom would hold up under the assault it was likely to receive.

Then again, she reminded herself with a smile, this was a safe house. It would be properly stocked at all times with enough food for its maximum capacity, and AVALANCHE and Assorted Others (as she'd taken to calling them in her head) were barely half that. So the rest of them probably wouldn't starve, even if Cloud got to eat his fill in the morning. Probably. She made a mental note to wake up early anyway, and reached down beside the bed for her rucksack.

Shoving aside extra gloves and a few Hi-Potions, she carefully extricated her hairbrush from the mess. She really ought to give the thing a good clean out, but in all honesty she didn't think much good would come of it. Any bag Tifa owned was destined to become a dumping ground for pieces of paper, packets of gum, receipts and toys from chip packets, which she firmly maintained she only collected for Marlene's sake. Thus, cleaning out this one was probably just a waste of her time.

As she brushed out her hair, she caught sight of a crumpled photograph in the depths of her bag. Yuffie had paid some random to take it in Gold Saucer – of course, she'd stolen it back later, but the principal was the same. In Tifa's opinion, anyone who wouldn't take a photograph for free was just asking for it, anyway. She left off brushing and caught hold of the photo, smoothing it with a smile.

It wasn't a good photo – the carnival was too busy to make for good photos. But all of AVALANCHE was in it, even Vincent, though it had taken a good twenty minutes of cajoling before the pale man had reluctantly agreed.

(Tifa thought she remembered the deed to Yuffie's right leg becoming involved at some point, but as Vincent had argued at the time: what would he do with her leg? Actually, Tifa remembered, Yuffie had had some very lewd suggestions about what Vincent could do with her leg, at which point Vincent had switched tactics and pointed out that he had legs in plentiful supply, and that Yuffie's contracts were always rather suspect. Yuffie's response to this had been to suggest his legs would no longer be in plentiful supply if he didn't get in the goddamn photo. The argument probably would have gone another few rounds – and they really could be called rounds; it was like watching ping-pong – had not the random threatened to do the amputations himself if they didn't stop wasting his time on the Mini Game machines.)

As such, Vincent was towards the back, not looking at the camera. Neither was Yuffie – she'd noticed that Vincent was ruining the photo, and had grabbed a fistful of cloak to urge him to look at the camera, half-turned to yell at him when the shutter clicked. The expression of rage on her face was comical in contrast to the resigned and peaceful smiles of the rest of the team – though Cid, here, was an exception. Obviously cursed with an unhappy photographic childhood, he'd already pulled an impressive face before Cait Sith had leapt onto his shoulders, latching onto the pilot's head with his mouth and yanking on his ears – 'helping'.

It was not a good photo, but it was one Tifa kept close to her heart. It went everywhere with her, these days, even to the grocery store.

And looking at it, she suddenly realised that Barret was missing. She gave the cavernous room a quick glance and slid from the bed with a frown, padding quietly toward the trestle tables where Cait, Reeve, Feather and Vincent were apparently playing 'Fish'.

Vincent looked up as she approached, possibly desperate for reprieve. "Has anyone seen Barret?"

The red-cloaked man tilted his head, approximating. "He went to visit Marlene, nearly half an hour before your nap."

Tifa blinked. She must have missed that. Still, "That was a long time ago. You haven't heard from him?" Vincent shook his head, and Tifa felt worry pinch maliciously at her heartstrings. "It's pretty weird for him to just leave like that, when he knows the Imbued might be out there..."

Vincent shrugged, listlessly handing Reeve another of his cards – this one a seven. Tifa noticed that he had two of these left in his hand, and had made no attempt to put them down. She doubted it was because he didn't understand the game. Another thing to worry about.

"He has never been rational where Marlene was concerned." Tifa wasn't sure from his tone whether he approved of this or not.

"I think I'll give him a call, anyway. Just to be sure."

Vincent nodded. Tifa made to walk away, then plucked the pair of sevens from his hand and laid them on the table before she went to find her PHS.

A few minutes later, with Cait still squawking something about cheating, Vincent seemed to come to some sort of decision. He placed his cards down firmly on the table and strode away, cape billowing.

* * *

"_Hello?"_

Tifa was startled into a smile by the young voice on the other end of the PHS. "Marlene! Hi, honey, it's Tifa."

"_Auntie Tifa!"_ Marlene squealed. _"Have you caught the bad men yet?"_

Tifa leaned back, hearing her chair creak ominously and not caring much. "Not yet, honey, but we're catching up. How's school going?"

"_It's fun. I like lunch time."_

Tifa snorted, and then bit her knuckle to suppress her giggling. "Oh, yeah?" She managed after a minute.

"_Uh huh. And finger painting. 'Cept dumb Chet got green all over my purple dress."_

This, in Tifa's opinion, was tragedy of the first degree. The purple dress was Marlene's favourite, and had been since the day she laid eyes on it. Flowers and balloons would not do – purple and white check was all there was in a dress, these days. Tifa said, "Oh no! Did you get it clean?" instead of, "Did you punch him?"

"_Nope."_ Marlene was glum. _"Mama tried to get it clean, but it's…"_ Tifa could sense the little brow furrowing in concentration. _"…'stained'."_

The dark-haired woman fiddled with her glove. "Never mind, honey. Once we catch the bad men, you can come shopping with Auntie Tifa and we'll find you another dress you really like, 'kay?"

"_Yay!"_ Marlene carolled from the other end. Tifa heard a querulous rumble from the background that must have been Barret.

"Marlene, can I talk to Papa, please?"

"_Okay. But you have to promise to take me shopping. Promise?"_

Tifa smiled, twirling her hair around her index finger. "Promise, honey. I'll even see if Uncle Cloud'll come, huh? And Red. You like Red."

"_He's all fluffy."_ Marlene agreed with a giggle. There was a pause, and then she put on her most serious voice to say, _"I'll just go get Papa for you. Please hold."_

Tifa grinned into her hand as the PHS emitted cheerful, soothing music. Or at least, music that was intended to be such. It usually grated on Tifa's nerves – and the nerves of the rest of AVALANCHE, too, for that matter. Yuffie had taken great pains to put Cid on hold at every possible opportunity, she remembered with a smirk. Often, it had taken until Vincent had wrestled the PHS off her for the line to go through... and then Cid would just become frustrated by Vincent's monosyllables. The phone would go back to Yuffie, and after a few minutes, the same thing would happen again...

"'_Lo?"_

Distracted from her musings, Tifa's immediate reaction was the first thing out of her mouth. "Barret! You should have taken someone with you. What if the Imbued had attacked?"

She had the brief impression of a bewildered blink from the other end, and then Barret demanded hotly, _"What, a man can't even visit his daughter now?"_

There was a pause. Tifa could hear Elmyra laughing, presumably at the expression on his face, and let her own amusement colour her tone. "I never said that. But you should have taken someone with you. I called to make sure you were all right."

Barret struggled briefly with wounded pride, and then huffed out a sigh. _"Yeah, yeah, we're all good here. How's the old man doing?"_

"Cid? He's awake. We're moving to Rocket Town the day after tomorrow. He wants to see Shera," she added, wistfully. Barret guffawed in disbelief.

"_He said that?"_

Tifa pouted at the wall. "Well, no. But it's obvious!" She could almost feel Barret rolling his eyes at her. "You just don't have a romantic bone in your body, Barret Wallace!" He was laughing, a great booming sound that blocked out every other noise on the line. Tifa found herself grinning, despite her outraged tone. "So, we'll pick you up on the way back to the Highwind?"

Grudging assent. _"Yeah. I'll call if anythin' comes up."_

"Okay. Be careful. And—" She heard the beeping before she finished her sentence, and smiled wryly. Barret had never been one for long goodbyes.

Replacing the handset of the PHS at her belt, Tifa started down the stairs to the main hall of buttons and blows. The rain hadn't yet ceased; she'd noticed when she'd ventured into the only part of the safe house that was above ground. It was still pouring down. It was a wonder the whole world hadn't flooded, yet. Tifa gave a sick-sounding chuckle, her earlier cheer leaving her. Maybe they ought to start building an ark.

The game of 'Fish' had apparently dissolved. Now Feather sat with Cait Sith, eyes turned towards the ceiling as she juggled her knives. Cait watched her with unnatural intensity, an oddly cold look on his tiny feline face as he watched the knives' endless circling. Sephiroth watched, a similar expression on his face – but, Tifa reflected, this was probably more due to a wariness of knives in general than anything particularly sinister. She had no idea what Cait Sith was doing, however.

Sephiroth noticed her almost immediately, giving her a brief glance over his shoulder and then returning his attention to Feather's juggling. "Barret is well, I imagine?"

Tifa's mouth fell open in a brief 'o' of surprise, and then she tucked her hair behind her ear to cover for it. "Yes, he's fine. We'll go by tomorrow, on the way to the Highwind." She glanced around, brow furrowed. "Where did Vincent go?"

Sephiroth took his eyes from the flashing, whistling blade display to eye her seriously. "I believe he is sleeping. He left the game shortly after you went to make your phone call."

"Oh..." Tifa glanced across the hall, searching for the purple bed. From where she stood, she could barely make out Vincent's tousled head, covers tugged dispassionately over his shoulders. "I wonder if he's all right...?"

Sephiroth made a motion with his hand like the tipping of scales. "It's uncertain. He seems to have been in deep thought since we returned here, particularly since Yuffie awoke."

"Mmm..." Tifa answered distractedly as she moved away, towards the slumbering Vincent.

The hall was quiet enough, with the whole team resting up while they could, that within ten paces of him she could _hear_ that he wasn't sleeping well. One moment he held his breath; the next he panted raggedly, shifted so that the quilt that covered him made scratchy noises against his claw and the wooden frame of the bed. When she reached the bed-head, she could see his pupil swivelling back and forth behind his eyelids, his eyebrows twitching in distress.

Tifa watched, discomfort heavy in her stomach. She was sure it was one reason Vincent usually slept only when he had to – when he was too exhausted to keep himself moving any longer, he was often too exhausted to dream like this. She wondered what went on behind his eyelids, if she could help him at all... and decided, reluctantly but firmly, that it was Vincent's business. He had never liked receiving help from others, and this, she was certain, would be no different.

She reached over to tug the quilt more firmly around his shoulders, habitually making to block the sudden motion he made with the claw in his sleep, and left him to his dreams, whatever they were.

* * *

Vincent fell into sleep and almost immediately _he found himself kneeling before an altar._

_Long and low, made from some smooth and clean-looking stone, he was uncertain how he knew it to be an altar; there were no offerings, no incense. The only real suggestion of worship was the looming statue above and behind the altar, carved of the same stone, but glowing slightly. He ran his eyes over its facets, the chiselled-out folds of skin, the impossibly thin and polished curve of the wings, before he realised what he was seeing._

_The statue was Chaos. This altar was to Chaos, and he knelt before it as though supplicating. He stood hurriedly, feeling vaguely repulsed. Why should he worship a demon?_

_The statue seemed to glow momentarily with purple fire, and he heard the dark laughter of the beast as he backed away hurriedly, unnerved. The floor dipped suddenly away beneath him – he fell down three shallow steps, twisting, barely managing to catch himself on level ground with his left arm. The rough brown cloak he wore spilled around him on the stone, the cowl falling back about his shoulders._

His left arm.

_He stared, flexing the long, pale fingers. A dream, of course. Only Chaos could be so cruel. He touched his hand to the floor, testing its strength, and straightened grimly. Another of Chaos' strange messages, no doubt. There was no escaping the demon's presence as he dreamt; he may as well wander here if that was what the creature wished._

_He stared hard at the statue for a few moments, until the shifting faces and forms he saw reflected in the wings stung his eyes. He turned from the altar and examined his surroundings._

_It seemed that he was in some sort of temple; an immense cylindrical hall capped with a dome. Vincent squinted at the ceiling, unable to make anything out. Apparently the hall was not worthy of even candlelight._

_He walked further into the centre of the massive room, peering at the walls. Chaos' altar had been in an alcove, divided from the altars on either side of it. The room could perhaps be likened to a clock face, he considered, though there would be too many digits. He began to pace around the edges of the room in a clockwise direction, counting._

_He was startled to discover that he was not alone in the hall. In the fourth alcove another figure knelt before another altar, this one capped by a proud statue of Shiva. Shards of broken stone circled the statue's feet, perhaps a tribute to her Diamond Dust. Vincent stared at the figure contemplatively and moved on without disturbing it._

_He passed several more altars and two kneeling figures before a sound startled him – a baby's squall. Vincent's eyes shot wide and he hurried toward the sound as the crying increased. It seemed to come from the opposite side of the room... only a few more alcoves, and he would reach it. Damn this darkness; he had always had perfect night vision – why should it cease, now? What form of darkness was this?_

_The crying stopped, and Vincent felt a terrible chill encroach upon his heart._

_A mote of greenish light appeared, leading Vincent to the alcove. A cloaked figure knelt here, too, but the stone was wet and slippery with a substance that looked black in the light._

Blood...?

_Vincent reached the foot of the steps, feeling at once sick and disturbingly hungry at the thin, metallic scent of it. The statue here was a swordsman astride a rearing stallion. _Odin. _As he watched, the cloaked figure extended a slim, lovely hand and laid a sword upon the altar, its blade glistening darkly with blood. Behind it-- Vincent felt bile rising in his throat-- lay a tiny body, blood pooled around it. The greenish light, fading now, had been emitted from its brilliant emerald eyes._

"_What... what have you done...?" Vincent whispered hoarsely._

_The cloaked figure stood, shook out the hem of the garment; it slapped wetly against her legs. The delicate hands folded back the cowl, revealing wavy ashen tresses, swept practically into a horse-tail. Recognition struck Vincent like a knife in the gut as she turned, smiling peacefully, so peacefully - his Lucrecia was always so happy with a job well done._

_Vincent choked, slamming his hands to his mouth as his stomach heaved, and let out a startled sound of pain as fingers like knives cut his cheek, his chin. The claw was back, and the bile burned at his wounds as he dropped to his knees on the smooth, white stone and vomited, again, and again, and again._

* * *

Vincent lurched out of bed to his hands and knees, gasping, swallowing frantically to keep the contents of his stomach firmly where they belonged. Horrified tears were brimming in his eyes, running down his cheeks. They seemed to burn along the surface of his skin.

"U-ugh...!"

He pushed himself backwards to rest his shoulders on the frame that held the mattress in place, shivering and breathing hard, furious and honestly afraid of the darkness around him. The smile on her face, the blood on her hands...

"Vincent?"

Red's voice made him flinch hard, scarlet eyes wide with pupils narrowed to reptilian slits. The large feline stood at the foot of his bed, single eye wide and shocked with what he was seeing. Vincent shuddered again and turned his face away. "L-leave me."

"No." Red padded closer and stared hard at Vincent. "Do you want me to get someone else?"

"_No._" That word, at least, was certain. Vincent could feel his trembling lessen as his resolve hardened. This, plainly, was a matter between Chaos and himself. He would resolve it as he always had: by himself. "No. I. A nightmare."

"A dream sent by Chaos," Red corrected gently, sitting back on his haunches. "I smell it. Don't you think there's a reason it sends you these dreams? No beast is entirely without reason. I speak from experience," he added wryly.

Vincent shook his head, bowing it to rest his bandanna-covered forehead against his knees. "There can be no reason for dreams such as this except that it _is_ just a beast... a demon with malicious intent." He jerked upright again, glancing around, and finally focused on the light of Red's tail. It twitched, agitated, and Red lay down with a huff, head landing heavily on Vincent's lap, flattening his knees to the floor again.

"I suppose you don't want to talk about it."

Vincent shook his head slowly, staring at the shaggy head upon his knees. He didn't even want to think about it. How horrifying, the face he had loved smiling so amiably with so much blood on her hands... there had been _so much blood_...

But Nanaki did have a point. These dreams were very different from the nightmares his long slumber had given him. These dreams, he mused thoughtfully, had started...

"Before my journey north," Vincent murmured. "They started before I visited the Crater. Pulled by Sephiroth's ghost..."

But it had been too soon then, hadn't it? He'd heard it, but Chaos had born him away-- to Wutai. Why would it go there, of all places?

In the back of his mind, Chaos hovered, strangely silent. Watching. Waiting. But not eagerly any more – it wasn't waiting for the moments when Vincent's guard was down. It wasn't waiting to smash its way out of his body and into the physical realm. It waited with patience; it waited expectantly, as if it _knew_ something.

"What are you waiting for?" Vincent whispered aloud.

Silence.

Slowly, the skylight changed to reveal a stubborn sunrise through a thick filter of storm clouds and the constant whisper of the rain. Vincent remained with Nanaki's head across his knees, staring across the top of the mattress opposite him.

_What are you waiting for?_ He demanded again.

Chaos would not reply.

He had the terrible feeling that it was watching _him_.

* * *

A/N: Would really like Vincent to have a _normal_ dream for once. :feeling sick:

Well, please let me know what you think. Next chapter is quite Yuffie-centric, or will be if my notes have anything to say on the matter... which they usually don't.

**Hush the silent** – Hey, if it's not letting you review, send me an e-mail or something; I love to hear from people. I know FFNet can be a pain sometimes... but I'm glad you've been enjoying the story.

**JML** – Many, many issues with Imbuing. You would not _believe_ the issues there were with Imbuing. Or maybe you would, but that's another story. Sorta. I'm missing FFVI and FFIII, unfortunately. Woe!

**DemonSurfer** – You'll see more on Laurent in the next few chapters, assuming he cooperates. And I have taken incredible pains to avoid being spotted. ;D

**The Dr.** – It's okay, I was just in a really bad mood when I read that for the first time; hence the RAWR response. Titan just... er, popped up, actually. It didn't make sense to me at first because Titan's one of the weaker Summons and not my favourite at all... but on exploring his character, I realised why he had to be the leader, why it _did_ make sense. You'll find out more about him later, too.

**Kiyoshi** – Blasphemy! ;D Kidding. Sink didn't so much bring me into the fandom as make me realize that Yuffentine could do so much _better_ for itself. And also, that a lot of characters are largely ignored, and a lot of fics were largely plotless.

**Romm** – Mmm, perhaps the situation with Feather made this a little unclear, but you can't just go swapping hosts for the Summons at random. Because of who she is, and what her abilities are, Feather rejected Shiva completely, keeping the materia whole, but sacrificing a great deal of herself to do so. (Hence the memory loss. If you've read _Demon Diary_, you'll have a clearer idea of what I mean.) Hopefully this chapter has put you back on track as far as Vincent's role is concerned. ;D

**Samantha** – Honey, I'm trying to update regularly, but I'm stuck on the next chapter and it's tough to get enough time to write this when I get distracted by other fandoms. I've been working on this fic two, three years now, though; I'll never give up on it.


	33. Worthy Distractions

Disclaimer: I do not own anyone or anything from FFVII. I do own everything else.

A/N: Man, keeping to an update deadline is _hard_, especially when I get distracted by other fandoms. Wish me luck on the next one, 'cause I'll really need it. Incidentally, my soundtrack has changed drastically, and everyone should find themselves a copy of "Happy Phantom" by Tori Amos.

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter 33: Worthy Distractions

Yuffie had not yet moved from her warm spot in the yellow bed, although it was approaching nine in the morning. She was ordinarily quite an early, if ungrateful, riser, but she didn't want to face anything else until she'd worked through her current dilemma: namely, Staniv's last words.

_Yuffie - Godo - Water God - Keeping - Safe - Now - Hers_

The words ran in little loops around her head. Sometimes she thought they might be familiar-- but then she realised that was probably only because she'd been thinking about them so long. She ought to take a break, refresh her mind, but she couldn't drag herself away from the disembodied words.

_Yuffie - Godo Water God Keeping Safe Now Hers_

She'd broken them up every which way, and they still didn't seem to make sense. Or at least, not completely.

_Yuffie - Godo Water God Keeping Safe - Now Hers_

That was almost coherent. "Tell Yuffie, Godo was keeping safe the Water God. Now it's hers." But what was hers? Was it her responsibility to safeguard the Water God? Was _Leviathan _hers? But why would Staniv tell her something like that? Leviathan was hers by birthright. Everyone-- well, not everyone, she amended, remembering vaguely that there were people outside of Wutai, too --knew that. She was Amegami - Godo couldn't have kept the materia much longer, anyway, her coming of age was so close.

_Self - Typhon - Yuffie - Leviathan_

That was slightly easier to dissect, at least. It made sense. She was Amegami - of course she was Leviathan. Which meant that the first part had to refer to Staniv himself.

_Self Typhon_

So... how was that possible? If he was trying to say his family had some sort of tie to Typhon... well, that was just plain weird. Typhon, as far as Yuffie knew, had never really been a patron god of Wutai. There'd been Da Chao, and Leviathan and... Leviathan. She pursed her lips and rolled onto her side, dangling one arm absently down to brush the floor with her fingertips.

It felt suspiciously moist. She frowned and peeked over the edge of the mattress, noting the darkened colour of the concrete. Too much water in the ground, in the air... Leviathan, free of the materia, was becoming a menace.

That'd be the first thing she should take care of, she decided with a frown. She needed to figure out some way of recapturing Leviathan before he drowned the whole Planet. Which, judging by the state of the floor, probably wasn't too far off at this stage. She frowned, clenching the sheets in her fist, and flung them down to the end of the bed, shivering as the cool, still air of the bunker hit her skin through a white cotton sleeping robe. Better get a move on, then.

Her doubts struck again as her feet struck the floor; sudden, chilly, and markedly unpleasant. How to go about it? Staniv had done it. Her friends had seen it. She could ask any one of them, ask _all _of them how he'd done it, but she had the feeling that hearing it would not be enough. Vincent's description had been very limited, outside in the grey haze of rain.

She sifted through her backpack in search of cleaner clothes. She was running awfully low - she'd have to make use of the laundry before they left, or maybe wait 'til Rocket Town. She'd always liked Shera's washing machine - the mechanic had made so many modifications to every appliance in the house, she may as well have made them all from scratch. The washing machine in particular looked like the bastard child of a lawn mower and a refrigerator, with throwbacks to the monster truck era. It didn't hurt that, rather than just letting it vibrate its way across the floor, Shera had equipped it with the wheels of one of its parents. Now, as it rumbled and shook, it actually had the capacity to come at a prospective washer-woman with dials aflame, door gnashing.

Withdrawing leggings, she eyed them critically, and flipped them up onto the bed. That'd be fine. It _was_ a little chilly lately. Probably the rain's fault. Her fault. She grimaced and dug with renewed energy for something to go on her top half. She highly doubted anyone would appreciate her wandering around without a shirt on... unless maybe they would. She cast a sly glance in Reno's direction, and smirked. Naw. Wouldn't want to give ol' Cid a heart attack after he'd just woken up; it'd be unsporting.

Eventually she settled on a singlet and a slightly thicker robe, and headed off for the bathroom, wishing the floor wasn't as damp and cold as it was.

The needling droplets of the shower were not the same as the rain outside. Heat had always made her lethargic. Yuffie had many memories of falling asleep on her father's stoop, while her mother stroked her hair and smiled fondly up at the skies. Closing her eyes, Yuffie could almost hear the faint strains of songs her mother'd sung on days of sun, waiting for the rain. She'd never managed to catch the words, though, 'cause the sun made her so sleepy... Yuffie smirked merrily to herself. _Mama'd be delighted, I'm sure._

From what she had heard numerous times from a cross and tired Chekhov, having chased a younger Yuffie high and low all over the village, Yuffie suspected Amegami Michiko would have been very well-pleased indeed.

As she towelled herself dry and leaned against an inconveniently cold basin to tug on the leggings, she smiled softly. _What would you have done, mama? Made 'em wish they'd never even heard of Wutai, I bet. Dad always said I took after you that way._ She peeked over her shoulder, brushing wary fingertips over the scar-tissue her encounter with the Imbued in Nibelheim had left her with. Her brows slowly dipped into a scowl. "I think I made them laugh at me, honest. What good's a ninja who gets knocked out like that? Should've used Wall or something..."

But honestly, she didn't think materia would be much use against the Imbued. "I mean, they have it _in_ them, don't they?" She reasoned with her reflection, aloud. "The only thing that really _stopped_ them..." She trailed off even as she tugged the singlet over her head, and frowned at herself through her fringe. It had been a bullet, hadn't it? Elena's bullet. At the end of it all, they were only human, and fast-moving lead was pretty deadly in anyone's language.

_But it didn't do anything to the Summon, did it?_

She ran a hand through her hair and snorted as it tangled. That just figured. This, she supposed, was why she'd always kept it short when she was running around saving the Planet. It was just too annoying to have to deal with it all the time... she had no idea how Aeris or Tifa managed...

_Shiva was still totally unharmed until Feather did... whatever she did to encase... her... again..._

Yuffie nearly smacked her head into the mirror.

_Well, duh!_

"Hey--! Feather! Are you awake yet?"

She'd nearly reached the bathroom door before her robe was fully fastened at her waist. She'd really have to start taking Cid and his heart attacks more seriously, one of these days.

"Feather...?"

* * *

Staring absently out at the slums, Vincent found that he felt most out of place in the strange, sharp haze of blue steel and dust grey. These were not the colours for him. No, he deserved inky blacks, bloody crimsons...

"Another nightmare, I take it."

Sephiroth's words were cool and unimposing. Vincent ignored him.

"You are not a quiet sleeper, Valentine. Nanaki certainly was not the only one to 'hear' you."

Vincent's voice was dead, though steeped in a bestial malice older than time. "I would not think that so. Aeris, I am sure, and I would hope one of the Turks, also woke and lay silent. And yet you imagine I would speak to you."

Sephiroth laughed softly and darkly beneath his breath. "Ah, Valentine. No. There are others more willing to listen, and closer to you. I'm sure I can have nothing to say." A pause, and he continued in a less certain tone. "Though, I should caution you. If you cannot rest, you may become a liability."

Vincent's breath hissed through his lips, a low and threatening sound.

"I have dealt with this creature as long as you have been alive. I _have_ a system." Scarlet orbs swivelled to stare angrily at Sephiroth. Subconsciously, the SOLDIER's hand flitted to the hilt of his sword, muscles tensing, and with the movement Vincent's eyes widened - as though in realisation - and drew away again.

"I slept yesterday only to see what Chaos' input would be. Suffice to say, I will not do this again."

He sounded defeated, now, not merely unwilling to converse. Sephiroth nodded slowly, hand inching away from his katana by force of will.

"It is a shame that things are not different," was all he offered, before stepping quietly back inside.

Vincent stared corpse-like at the rain and agreed that it was, indeed, a shame.

* * *

"So, you think you've got it this time?" Reeve sounded impressed. "What are the algorithms like?"

Cait's eyes were shining with unholy glee. "They're a doozy, but I think I finally got it down. Watch this."

The moogle took a few huge steps back and hefted the megaphone into the air. Cait Sith dropped his crown into the hand the megaphone had just left, and it, too, was flung up into the air, whirling around and around...

Reeve was grinning. "Just two? Feather can do six, y'know. Knives, even." He winked at the girl, who smiled merrily, and then shot Cait a startled look, as though she hadn't quite meant to do that. The feline smirked lazily.

"'Scuse me, who figured this out in the first place?"

"Me." Reeve pointed out. "I programmed every thought in that furry little head of yours, including your learning engine. So you're never gonna win on that one. To you, I might as well be god."

Cait Sith snatched his crown of the air, and was about to have the Moogle perform a sacreligious movement when Yuffie bounded over, terribly bright and cheerful for this hour in Reeve's opinion. (Almost automatically he looked around for Vincent, but apparently the gunman had no part in this mood. Weird.)

"Hi, Feather," she said eagerly, ignoring Cait and Reeve completely. This alone caused Feather to cringe away slightly, but Yuffie held up her hands with a disarming grin. "I just wanna talk to you for a few minutes. About Shiva, you know? Might help me figure out what Staniv was talkin' about before he kicked the bucket."

Reeve frowned slightly. It wasn't like Yuffie to be so flippant. Perhaps she thought her offhand attitude would help, but it seemed to make Feather nervous. "Is that okay with you, Feather?"

Nervous apple eyes flicked toward amber, and a tremulous smile appeared on tattooed lips.

"Yes..."

Yuffie's next grin had a little more feeling behind it. "Great! Thanks." She reached into her sleeve, frowned briefly, and extricated the two halves of her Leviathan materia. "So... do you think you could show me what you did with Shiva to make it fuse?"

Feather took an uncertain look at Reeve, then returned her eyes to Yuffie and gave a small nod, extending her hands for the materia. Yuffie deposited both halves in her palms, eyes avid, and clasped her own hands in front of her.

"I... wanted for nobody to be hurt. I wanted for Shiva not to hurt anyone, to go away."

Reeve found himself remembering that day, as she spoke. The sudden breath-snatching dip in temperature as Shiva's body coalesced before him, the indignant fury in her eyes making his blood freeze in his veins... He shivered and tugged his jacket closer around him.

"I took the materia and..." Feather demonstrated rather than spoke, pressing the halves together and frowning in concentration. She couldn't seem to get the edges aligned. "...put them together..." She continued to frown, puzzling over the strange fit of the orb's planes. Realisation in her apple green eyes, and a swift glance at Reeve gave him similar enlightenment: _she_ couldn't make them fit. Whatever connection Feather had with Shiva, they'd have to find someone with a similar connection to Leviathan.

Reeve stood slowly, pushing away from the table as Feather's soft voice continued to narrate the day that Ayuki died. The President's thoughts were now otherwise occupied. Feather, years ago, had made a career out of her talent, becoming the Ice Dancer. But was that what had given her the ability to reseal Shiva within the materia? Or was that a side-effect of the attempted Imbuing, years later?

Reeve paced uneasily towards the polka dotted bed, and sat down heavily on the thick quilt.

Would they need to find someone who'd brought rain or tides as Feather had brought ice, he wondered, or would an _Imbued_ be needed to seal each of the respective Summons? And if that was true...

Reeve grit his teeth, staring with unusual seriousness at a far wall. If that was true, they might as well be unstoppable. Even if he considered Imbuing in order to reseal a Summon, from the data they'd collected, there was no way to Imbue with a broken materia. Hollowness settled in Reeve's stomach, weighty despite its nature. He dug the heels of his palms into his eye sockets, trying to smooth away the pronounced aching behind his eyes, and jumped when a hand touched his shoulder.

Feather sat down next to him and rested her head where her hand had been.

"Try... not to worry. Miss Yuffie is very determined. She will find a way to do what must be done."

Reeve rested his chin glumly atop Feather's head. "Yeah. You're right."

_Even if she has to die, trying._

* * *

By the time she'd finished grilling Feather, Yuffie thought it was pretty amazing she hadn't exploded from frustration or unanswered questions. Feather had tried her hardest to explain, but her memory and inherent shyness had gotten in the way and prevented Yuffie from learning anything really useful. Feather was the closest thing AVALANCHE had to an Imbued - who was she supposed to as now that source had been exhausted?

_Who else was down there with Staniv?_ She mused. She'd heard already from Cloud, so that left... _Reno. Rude. Red. Sephiroth. Vincent. Cait. _She listed them off on her fingers as she thought of them. Cait was outside the whole time, so that only left five of them, and as she'd already talked to Vincent, sorta, the Turks and Sephiroth were probably the next best thing. Satisfied, she flexed her fingers and cast around the hall for Reno.

He was lying on his side on his fire-engine bright bed (though the dramatic effect was somewhat spoiled by the strawberries-and-cream chequered pattern on the extra pillow cover) playing a silent card game with Rude, who paced absently behind him. He'd removed his glasses, Yuffie noted, and couldn't prevent herself staring curiously at the dark, fresh green of his eyes. Rude looked at her over his cards and stopped pacing, one eyebrow raised.

"Well, I'm never gonna get another chance, am I?" When Rude only shrugged, she continued, "Why'd ya take 'em off?"

Rude jerked his head at Reno. "Reads the reflection." The other Turk lolled back with a smug grin.

"With your cold mug, I need all the help I can get, ya miserable bastard," he said, affectionate as only Reno could be. He had to tilt his head back further than looked comfortable to look at Yuffie, and his scars seemed to stretch oddly with his upside-down grin. "So what can we do ya for, brat?"

Yuffie snorted despite herself. "Not for all the gil in Gold Saucer, calling me that," she reprimanded him, smiling all the same. "I wanted to know what Staniv did to get that Typhon whole again. This rain is..." She hesitated, thinking they'd probably laugh at her if she said what she was thinking, something Cosmo Canyon-ish: _interfering with the balance._

Reno shrugged, rolling onto his stomach. "Kinda hard to tell; he was mostly crystal by then. But he sorta put it together, cupped in his hands, and, uh, I guess he sorta willed his life into it. Whatever it was, after that last message he scratched to Valentine, he didn't have any strength left."

Rude nodded once in agreement, cards still held mindfully to his collar. "It took effort," he agreed mildly. "But the price wasn't life..."

Yuffie's smile was grim, but she understood. "Feather." It was all she had in explanation. "Okay. Well, thanks anyway. Reno, your cards are showing," she added as she turned away. The red head yelped, swore, and smacked them protectively to his chest with his free hand.

"You'd better not have peeked," she heard him tell Rude, who chuckled and went back to pacing.

"Wouldn't dream of it."

Sephiroth was next on her list, and surprised her by also lying on his bed. She approached warily, not willing to wake him, but his eyelid rose as soon as she was within six feet of him. "Um, hi," she said uncertainly, and he sat up smoothly. His braid slithered swiftly from his shoulders to pool in his lap, and he stared at it for a moment, as though it had ruined the effect. Yuffie fought the urge to snicker.

"May I help you?" Sephiroth inquired, and the phrase sounded out-of-place on the swordsman, so Yuffie grinned.

"Just wanting your take on Staniv, putting Typhon back in the materia. The rain, y'know." She waved a hand vaguely at the air, and Sephiroth frowned.

"You don't know it will be the same. Typhon wasn't free; it was imprisoned in Staniv's body. Leviathan, I am willing to wager, has much more to draw on than that. There could be no way for us, or you, to imprison it the way Staniv did with Typhon."

For a second, Yuffie couldn't believe how thoroughly he seemed to have thought about it, how easily he had picked up her train of thought. Then she remembered that this was the General of legend, and felt sheepish. "O-okay... uh. Anything encouraging to add to that?"

Sephiroth snorted. "Nothing need ever be encouraging. The important thing is to continue, regardless of the outlook. Without perseverance, you're nothing but a coward and a child."

Yuffie couldn't decide whether that was an insult or a compliment, or nothing at all, so she shrugged and decided to rephrase her question. "So you didn't notice anything special?"

Sephiroth blinked, catlike and lazy, and she had the distinct impression he was pleased. "The sensation of power in the room was undeniable. When it vanished into the materia, the very air seemed different. For me, it seemed a great loss, the disappearance of that power. However for others, it seemed to make it easier to breathe."

Yuffie had a split second to feel as though she understood, like the answer was on the tip of her tongue, before she lost it. She sighed and shook her head. "Nope, I still don't get it. But thanks, Sephiroth."

The swordsman granted her a rare smile, small and thoughtful. "You are welcome. If I come to any useful conclusion, I will inform you."

He lay down again, shifted for a few moments, and then closed his eyes, as though he was trying to conserve his strength. Looking at him, Yuffie felt a strong urge to surround his head with whipped cream, or at least confetti or honey or something. She wished, vaguely, that Cait Sith was here to talk her into the suicidal, and knew it was lucky he wasn't. Sephiroth didn't strike her as the type to let anything go lightly, least of all the semi-permanent mutilation of his hair.

Cait Sith, Yuffie reflected thoughtfully, was sort of like her little shoulder devil; a bad influence to sit on her shoulder and prompt her to pranks and taunting words. They'd had the best fun in Shinra Mansion, the two of them, making scary noises and scaring each other shitless in the darkened corridors... Actually, with the racket they'd made, it was a wonder they hadn't been swamped by monsters trying to shut them up, or that they hadn't found Vincent sooner. That must've been Red's calming influence, she supposed. Her two little shoulder felines, keeping her out of line and out of trouble, simultaneously.

The thought made her grin, and she glanced around for Red. He'd been such a pain in those situations, all stoic and serious in the face of their antics, but sometimes even Red had to break down and act like the 'teenager' he was, in cat years, or whatever years Red actually used.

She found him over underneath the table and, spurred on by memories of younger days, she crawled in next to him and buried her face in his mane. Red shifted uncomfortably and huffed out a fond, if exasperated, sigh. "Hello, Yuffie."

"'lo, Red." Yuffie scratched his ears, which he both loved and hated. "'m going 'round asking about Staniv and Typhon and what he did to it. What'd you see?" Red pushed himself up on one shoulder and butted at Yuffie's hand. She obliged, and continued scratching as he gathered his thoughts.

"I believe I saw much the same as the others, but their sense of smell is not so acute. Typhon was there in that room; the air was too different for anything else. If it had not been for that, I would certainly have scented the Phoenix on the air much sooner."

Here, Yuffie was forced to interrupt with a teasing, "Suuure."

Red snapped at her arm and worried it playfully for a moment. "I would have," he pressed, briefly. "It was only for a few moments, but Typhon was there. As though its presence was an intermediate stage in the sealing of the materia."

Yuffie pouted. "Great. So we have to sort of lure Leviathan back to his materia? That'll be fun..." She made beckoning motions at the far end of the table. "Here, snakey, snakey, snakey...!" Red snorted and nipped her arm again, amused. "Like that?"

"Surely you have a more mollifying name for your patron god than 'snakey'?" He suggested with a strange parting of jaws intended to be a smile. His golden eye glinted, and Yuffie tapped his nose with a frown.

"Yeah, maybe. Wutai's got all sorts of rituals... it might just be a matter of quizzing the old folks on finding the right one. We haven't done a lot of really _traditional_ traditions since Shinra moved in." Encouraged this time, Yuffie pecked Red on top of his furry head and ruffled his mane. "Purr, purr," she told him seriously. Red snorted and lolled backward into the moist earth with a loud thump.

"Go annoy someone else," he told her firmly, and refused to be roused. Yuffie spent a few moments brushing the ticklish tufts of fur between his paw pads, and scrambled out from under the table, giggling, when he swiped his flaming tail at her.

But as her thoughts condensed, her laughter slid away. No one had really been much help... though, she reflected, hearing their different opinions was a handy reminder of how very different they all were. In her head, when she thought of AVALANCHE, she thought of CloudTifaBarretmuddleinone. Not that she'd had visions of Barret picking flowers, or Red kickboxing, but...

She shook the thoughts away and tried to concentrate on the matter at hand.

Almost automatically, she'd found the stairwell and begun the climb, wanting to feel the rain against her bare skin, needing that wonderful, peaceful clarity the chill of the water gave her. It struck her as she went that a yukata was possibly not the best thing to go out into the deluge with, but she'd come this far already, and she couldn't make herself go back down. The rain called her, as it always did, and she followed, pushing open the door with an urgency for which the situation didn't seem to call.

She left the cover of the makeshift porch, striding straight out into the downpour. Rain pounded her shoulders, her upturned face, her breasts. It seeped into her clothing as though it sought to seep into her skin. She closed her eyes and smiled. Even as a shiver began, she could feel that cold sense of tranquility welling. Along with that odd sense of calm came the knowledge that someone else was near.

"Hello, Vincent."

She pivoted lightly in the mud, remembering distractedly that bare feet weren't a good thing in Midgar, and found him staring at her. She couldn't decide whether his expression was empty due to surprise or something else entirely.

"Yuffie."

It couldn't be called friendly; it could barely be called tolerant. Yuffie, wet, and feeling better than she had all morning, sauntered back under cover to stand in front of him. He seemed to be slouching, almost cringing, so he was lower than usual. She put her hands on her knees, brought her face close to his, and thought she caught a faint scent of fire.

"What's eating you, monster man?"

He really did look the part today, hair wilder even than usual. Yuffie wasn't certain, but she thought his pupils might even have been slitted today. They certainly seemed a little more reptilian... but that wasn't the sort of thing that Vincent needed to hear, not with the way those eyes had chilled with the nickname. Yuffie pursed her lips at him and tilted her head winningly at him.

"Okay. You had a bad dream, right? Really bad, I'm betting." Vincent's face was very carefully blank. "And you don't want to talk about it."

A frown worked its way across what was visible of Vincent's brow. "How do you read the faces that don't want to be read?" He asked softly. Yuffie, feeling this was a little close if his voice was going to be that velvet tone, shrugged and dropped into a crouch. Mud squished up between her toes as more weight was transferred to the balls of her feet.

"When you really don't want to talk about something, you make your face too blank. And you hate being called 'monster man' after your nightmares." Daring much given his mood, she patted his knee lightly, commenting, "The ninja's not stupid, Vinnie, she _can_ put two and two together, y'know." A pause, and she continued softly, "I've known you a while now, after all."

The careful blank of his eyesfaded into a weary expression, and the barest glint of a pained, grateful smile. "I do not doubt it."

Yuffie beamed at him and stood up again, flicking her now soaking hair out of her face. "Good." She put her hands behind her back and turned to watch the rain fall.

Vincent, watching her in turn, found himself captivated by the pull of the fabric as she crossed her arms, the soft, moist slide it made across Yuffie's slender arms. She seemed not to notice his attention, her gaze firmly focused on the rain as though she were a sentinel, a stone guardian.

Yuffie could never be stone, though, he reflected, abstractedly, she was too full of life, too vibrant. Even as he looked at her, her eyes were startlingly blue against the dull grey of the day; her hair, though dark with water, still coiled along her skin like something alive. She looked beautiful. Ragged, tired, perhaps, but beautiful. Vincent suppressed twin urges to shiver, and to trace the path of the hair plastered to her cheeks with his fingers... and suddenly felt utterly disgusted with himself.

He'd have left, then, had not her lips parted to speak his name softly into the rain. It took him several moments to gather himself enough to reply.

"Yes, Yuffie...?"

From this angle it was easy to see her bite her lip. "I know you already told me what Staniv said, but you could tell me exactly what he did to put Typhon back in the materia?"

Vincent frowned. "Could you not ask Reno or one of the others? They are far more descriptive..."

It was equally easy to see the smile spread across her face. "I know, Vinnie, but you tell it like it is. And you need distracting, because the last thing you need is to go back to the nightmares."

He had to admit, she was right, there.

"I cannot be certain, but it seemed as though he had to separate Typhon from himself and... pour... it into the materia. He had enough control over the process to do that, perhaps as a result of the Imbuing. Why do you ask?"

Yuffie held a hand out into the rain, thoughtfully turning it this way and that. "I think we need to stop this rain. There's just too much of it. It's..." She narrowed her eyes at the sky, tip of her tongue between her teeth, as though mimicking the serpent that was her patron diety. "...wearing itself out. That's what I think. There's not enough rain to go on forever, like this."

Vincent's human hand rested protectively over the razor fingers of the claw. "Do you think you are able to encase Leviathan? Was that what Staniv meant?"

Yuffie shrugged uncomfortably. "I don't know. I'm Leviathan**geh**. But as far as I know, we never had Typhon**geh**. Or anything else,except Da Chao. And there's no materia with Da Chao in it. So... I guess I'm really not sure what he meant, when he said I was Leviathan." She tried for a smile and missed the mark. Vincent felt his heart sink slightly. If Yuffie could not be happy, what hope was there for the rest of them? He opened his mouth, determined to say something (though he wasn't sure what it would be), and was given pause by the thoughtful expression that had passed through Yuffie's eyes.

"Although, you know... that's something that's always bothered me. No one ever tells stories about Da Chao, the way we do about Leviathan. It's like it's taboo. Da Chao has no story. He's... it's... just _there_."

Vincent thought of Staniv, dissolving in the wind atop Da Chao, thought of Chaos rumbling through the mountain below him. The demon bubbled up through the layers of his consciousness, overlaying his mind with its own.

_**Here.**_

_**Always here.**_

_**Inside...**_

Vincent bowed his head, pressed his face into his knees, eyes squeezed shut against the ever-alien sensation of another mind shifting within his own. He must have made some sort of sound, for the next thing he knew, Yuffie had seized him by the shoulders, and was staring worriedly into his face.

"Vinnie, are you okay?"

_**...to protect...**_

_To protect?_

"...I'm not sure."

* * *

A/N: Did the beginning of the final scene feel like wandering around as Cloud, talking to party members to anyone else? Also, a warning, the next chapter will in all likelihood be late. I just bought a lot of books, and of course I'll have the next HP to read very soon. So it might take anything up to a month, or even beyond. I'll try not to leave you hanging that long, though, because that would be rather nasty and I appreciate you all very much.

**Demeter1** - I love you. You've hit upon one of the many reasons for me to be writing this fic, and it may answer one of your questions. :D I love Chaos more than is good for me. And Vincent, in all likelihood.

**Seventhe** - They're getting shorter because I'm trying not to pack too much information into one sitting. The last few chapters were originally intended to be all lumped into one, but I thought that might be an overload-- it _certainly_ felt like overload when I wrote them.

**The Dr.** - I am not quite that cruel. :D But just barely. And only because that would require more Barret character development that I am simply not capable of. I like him, but not enough for much depth. Poor guy. He's just a bear in a marshmallow to me.

**Kiyoshi** - I'd _adore_ to see your artwork:D I'm absolutely tickled pink. Please, send me links or something. :smooch:

**Neko-Yuff16** - Dreams tend to visual metaphor, and that one was no exception. No more explanation than that, for now.

**Navi** - Button _does_ know Feather's real name; she offered to tell her, but Feather refused, because she's not that person any more. :) Glad you liked the conversation with Marlene. A lot of stories forget the little things, but the little things are often all I see, probably because I'm more interested in character than anything else. I like showing that people are people.

**YinYangDarkLight** - I, too, find battle scenes difficult to follow, so I avoid them when possible. I try to keep to a two week upload scheme these days, so chapter thirty-four ought to be up on July 14. (But probably won't, because I've been lazy with this lately. Bad me.)


	34. The Shanghai Inn

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone or anything from FFVII. I do own everyone and everything else, unless otherwise specified.

A/N: The Subtitle Chapter. Take your pick from a) Travel, and the Regurgitated Chicken Soup of the Wutaian Soul, b) Pillow Talk - 19 Real Pillow! or c) Plotspotting.

Sorry it took so long. I've been sick, and away, and uninspired, and distracted by the HARRY POTTER book, hello. Take your pick of those lame excuses and let me go back to sleep.

You can see the version with lyrics attached on my LiveJournal.

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter 34: The Shanghai Inn

Reeve expected to squint, emerging from buttons and blows into the chill grey dawn, but as it turned out, there was no need to do so. It was brighter in than out, and not because the sun hadn't quite risen. Clouds still churned overhead, drizzling spitefully down on AVALANCHE as they milled about in front of the entrance to the safehouse. He felt a shiver from Feather, her hand tightening on his arm, as they stepped into the light rain.

She pressed herself against his side, making him glance at her sharply, but she wasn't even paying attention to him. Her eyes were upturned, focused with deep concern on the sky. Reeve grimaced, stared solemnly at them until a raindrop poked him rudely in the eye, and then turned his attention back to the rest of the group, though his hand remained overlayed comfortingly on Feather's.

What little morning light there was played softly over AVALANCHE, washing them out, and giving Reeve the impression that he was watching a group of determined ghosts. While cooler colours were absorbed into the grey, warm tones stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb. Nanaki and Vincent prowled silently, shocks of colour where they could be seen through the small crowd.

Neither of them could compete with the vivacity of Reno's hair, though, bobbing energetically above the group in his attempts to banter cheerfully with his old friends before they parted. It didn't help that Saffron and his great cloud of gold hair were draped about Reno's shoulders, the blond having been shoved off on the Turk while Verde spoke sternly to Cid of cigarettes and where further lung irritation could land him.

Saff was clearly not a morning person. His determination to regard Reno as a makeshift pillow was probably enough evidence of this, but his disheveled appearance only seemed to emphasize the fact. His hair was loose and uncombed, his curls looking a lot less orderly than they had days ago. Perhaps it was just the irritation that lent his face a forbidding look, but Reeve was fairly certain he wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of whatever Saff was capable of dishing out. Reno seemed to be bearing up well despite the added weight and Saff's thick, cumbersome clothing.

"--know it's just an emergency deal, but we really oughta get back together sometime. You're still keeping tabs on everyone, yeah?"

Tone shrugged, apparently indifferent. "Lotta people died, all that shit went down a few years ago, Scar. Lotta those beds ain't gonna get more use." Reno's face fell. Lana punched Tone companionably in the arm.

"Aww, you're just gettin' all melancholy 'cause we're leaving, old man," she teased him smirkingly. "Been missin' the company, I bet, now ya gotta spend all that time with y' lady." She tried to wink at Button, but the older woman was distracted, talking breathlessly with Tifa about something. The dark-haired woman looked disconcerted.

Tone grunted. "Ah, shaddap, the pair of you."

Reno grinned saucily in reply. "Whatever y'say, boss. We'll be back, though, and make sure you round up everyone you can. We gotta do drinks sometime."

"_Do drinks_," Lana imitated him, disparagingly, hands on hips. "Y'make it sound like a damn cocktail party! We're gonna go get _pissed_," she told Tone firmly. "And you make sure everyone knows it. Reno and I can afford it."

"Speak for yourself!" Reno returned, aghast. "Have you _seen _what Scape drinks? That stuff'd bankrupt me faster'n--"

Cloud's raised voice cut across the bickering, capturing Reeve's attention rather than immediately silencing Reno. (That, Reeve reflected with some asperity, would have taken a miracle.)

"All right everyone, let's--"

"_Don'tsayit_," Cid hissed, surprisingly quick off the mark. He coughed once, twice, and then glared at them all as though daring them to say anything. "Had enough of your pansy-ass talk, kid. Talk like a real leader, why doncha?"

Cloud's blue eyes sparkled in merriment, and the tug of his mouth told them all he'd been hoping for such a response. Reeve could tell the rest of the group was grinning (well, except for those of them who habitually did not grin) without having to see their faces.

Reno whistled, quick and piercing between his teeth at Verde, and the olive-eyed man began the complicated process of tugging Saffron into wakefulness, and off Reno. A few incoherent sounds later, and the blond's eyes were open, barely, squinting uncharitably around at them.

"So, you're off, then?" He asked, voice cracking a little. He yawned widely, scrubbing at his eyes. Then, without warning, he launched himself at Reno and pecked him on the cheek. The Turk recoiled with a strangled cry, Verde rolled his eyes, and Saffron had to grab Reno's arm and jacket to prevent himself from toppling facefirst into the mud.

"You be careful, dear heart," Saffron chided him fiercely. "Your brother would never forgive me if you were badly hurt-- and _don't_ you give me that look, young man, I know _exactly_ what you're thinking, and your profession is _no_ excuse." He swatted affectionately at Reno's arm and moved back to lean against his lover, winking, but serious nonetheless. "Well, do you want to miss the tides? Winds, whatever? Get a move on."

Reno turned away, a 'why me?' expression all too plain on his humiliated face. Cait Sith couldn't resist the urge to snigger, "Heh, you really _are_ the Queen of the Slums!" Cid snorted, Cloud turned away, ineffectually trying to mask his shaking shoulders and smirk and the same time, and Yuffie cackled gleefully. Saffron merely looked thoughtful.

"Oh, no, dear, from what I've heard I'm sure that would go to Cloud..."

At this, Tifa and Aeris exchanged glances and burst into giggles. Barret fair howled with laughter. Cloud's shoulders shook for half a moment with continued mirth before the comment penetrated, and he turned around, flushed with mortification.

"WHAT! Hey!"

It was Reno's turn to snigger as they set off for the Highwind, and snigger he did - at great length and with insensible glee - at least until Cloud started advancing slowly with a drawn sword and a Fire materia.

* * *

Once again huddled in her corner, Yuffie was sure she felt even sicker than she usually did on this miserable bucket of bolts. Maybe it was the cold, maybe it was the weight of her thoughts, but she was betting it was the fact that the storm outside was tumbling the Highwind so violently through the sky, she wouldn't have been surprised to find it had materialised a fist, grabbed them in it, and shaken the airship like dice in a cup. Her stomach certainly felt like it.

Another lurch, another swift swallow, tilting her head back and holding her breath to prevent her food going _esplode_ all over Cid's nice clean Highwind. The last thing Cid needed was to yell himself hoarse over her puking up her guts; he shouldn't even be flying, the way the ship would be fighting him on a day like today. Verde had not threatened him lightly; too much stress upon his lungs could still kill him. Much as Yuffie liked to believe Cid was still an invincible old tar-monster, she'd been shown too often lately that the people she'd always thought of as invulnerable... weren't.

Her fingers played thoughtlessly over the curve of the cracked Leviathan, stowed in one of the many pockets in the bright yellow jacket that Aeris had bought her in Glacier Village. She was worried. Not for herself; there were other people who could pilot the Highwind besides Cid, so even if he... strained himself, the rest of AVALANCHE would have little difficulty guiding the craft back down to solid ground. She was worried for Cid, worried for Shera, worried for the rain itself. Another jolt caused her to convulse, curling knees to her chest, hands to her mouth, wrapped around the materia halves.

Almost unconsciously, Yuffie began to pray. Her thoughts were unfocused; concerned and bilious, she asked softly, despairingly, for those things she truly wanted.

_Let us pass, Water God, mighty Leviathan, let us pass. Be calm and let us pass unscathed; still the current of your fury and buoy us on gently. We must make our journey safely, we must make it with your blessing, so please, great Leviathan, becalm yourself and curb your temper... your daughter, Kisaragi Yuffie, asks this small favour of you... mighty... Leviathan..._

* * *

It was Chaos that prodded Vincent into motion, Chaos that caused him to note the odd sensation in the air. It was Chaos that roused him from his usual position on the bridge of the Highwind, brought the curious frown to his face and the impression that something, important, however miniscule, had changed.

The craft rocked beneath his feet, making him step slightly more heavily than he had perhaps intended. That didn't matter; on the Highwind, with these shoes, he could never step so lightly as he might have liked. Yet even as he moved, he heard Cid's loud exhalation, the relief contained therein, even before the pilot spoke.

"Heh... Lady Luck never lets me down, do ya girl? Weather's clearing up a bit. Not much, but enough. Won't take us long to reach Rocket Town, now, we're about to hit the coastline."

Vincent was halfway down the stairs to the gallery, stooping slightly so that Yuffie was in view. She appeared to be asleep, huddled up against the thrumming wall and a stack of crates. Briefly torn, he decided to return to the bridge rather than wake her, calnging across the walkway to ascertain if she was warm. He turned, found Red halfway down the stairs after him, his head also lowered to view the ninja.

"I thought I smelled something..." Red muttered. Vincent hesitated in his ascent to look at the feline more closely. If Chaos had urged him into motion and Nanaki, too, had scented danger...

"I think I'll stay with her." Red decided aloud. "She could use the extra warmth. There's no heating on this level, except in the smaller rooms."

She could use the protection, Vincent decided with a nod, if their senses had been correct.

"Try not to wake her, then," he said, expertly offhand, and clanged his way back to the bridge as softly as he could.

It was much easier this time, as the rain and wind had softened to gentle caresses against the hull. Cid swore cheerfully by his bikini-clad Lady Luck, and told them they'd be there in no time. Vincent resumed his post, arms crossed, braced between consoles. If the bad weather returned as curiously as it had abated, he would not like to be caught off-guard.

* * *

It was evening in Rocket Town, and Yuffie was standing in the laundry of the Shanghai Inn, sullenly waiting for machines that were not Shera's to clean and dry her clothing so she could go to bed. Cid had claimed he couldn't house all of them, so rather than be squashed in, why not head down to the Shanghai Inn and hit them up for board? AVALANCHE received a special discount these days, not for saving the Planet but for befriending the Captain, so it'd be cheaper and a lot more comfortable than being wedged between half-repaired machinery...

It had made a convincing argument at the time, because Yuffie was still thinking wistfully of her cozy nook in the Highwind (funny, it was only cozy after she exited the rust bucket, and it hadn't been all that warm, either, before Red had come and put his back up against her) and how non-cozy it would be to be eight inches away from Barret's big, chainsaw-snoring face and lying on eighty-seven different sized bolts because Shera's tool room was always and forever an _absolute mess_. Now that she was reluctantly pushing the perfectly lit buttons on gil-operated washing machines, none of which - not even the driers - possessed either wheels or spikes... she couldn't help but feel like she'd missed out on the _whole point_ of coming to Rocket Town. Aside from seeing Shera and making Cid all bouncy with puppy-_lurve_ power so they could go kick butt again, of course.

They'd waltzed in, early afternoon - well, Yuffie had waltzed in - and been greeted with immediate cups of tea all around, and a delighted, surprised Shera, who pounced first on Cid and then on Aeris and then on Cid again (a little more violently this time) when he sat down in his chair and dragged out his cigarettes and lighter. ("Habit! It's habit! I wasn't gonna smoke it, damn it, woman!") And then they'd chatted for hours, filling the mechanic in on all the little vagaries of the journey, eating far too many of Shera's scones, which weren't great so much as sweet and hot and _there_, and then the question of sleeping arrangements had come up when it was nearly dinner time and after Cid's persuasive, sneaky little speech, the washer-hoarding bastard, Cloud had sent half the group off to pester the front desk of the town's only inn. The guy on reception had been only too pleased to offer complimentary rooms to the Captain's friends, but regretfully informed them that they'd have to get their own dinner, as Cookie was down with a bit of a cold.

The combination washer/dryer beneath her butt began to rattle ominously. Yuffie clamped her hands down on either side of the machine, glad of the pizza she'd almost devoured whole; she'd had to sit on the machine to get it to close properly, and the extra weight was probably helping. After a few more minutes of rattling and growling, the machine shut down with a relieved sort of groan, and Yuffie jumped down, a similar sound escaping her lips. She was no longer glad of the extra pizza. _Not satisfied with feeling sick on every mode of transport bar Chocobo, Kisaragi Yuffie has to feel sick on her own two feet!_ She swallowed harshly as she bent to scoop her dried, crumpled clothes out of the machine, bundling them all up in the middle of her thickest, most durable robe so she could haul them all upstairs to the room she was sharing with Aeris, Vincent and Sephiroth.

The first door was wide open, Reno leaning against the frame and stinking up the hallway with a cigarette. Yuffie made a face as she passed him. "She should've nailed _you _in the lungs, Turkey, so we wouldn't have had to put up with your cancer sticks either."

"Fuck you, Kisaragi," Reno replied amicably, reaching out to ruffle her hair. She danced backward, so he ended up pulling half of it out of its ponytail. Yuffie squawked indignantly, kicking out at him, but Reno (obviously expecting this) had whipped the door half-closed so her foot crashed into it, instead. Pouting at his cocky grin, she limped exaggeratedly further down the hall and raised her hand to thump on the closed door of her own room.

But before her fist could impact, the door opened and she found herself nose-to-chest with Sephiroth. "Aeris is sleeping," he told her, then frowned. "What happened to your hair?" Yuffie briefly considered kicking him in the shins, and considered it again more seriously when she pushed past him and saw the room. Aeris was indeed asleep, in the bed furthest from the window. Yuffie could have cried.

"But... the girls were supposed to have the window bed!" She whispered despairingly. Sephiroth shook his head, braid whipping, serpent-like, with the movement. The disparaging motion was belied by the slight smile on his face.

"You will have the window bed. We decided it would make more sense for Mr and Mrs Gainsborough to share."

Yuffie turned to him, hand on hip, eyebrow raised teasingly. "You _so_ just want to get Aeris in bed."

Sephiroth's face was perfectly blank. "There is no need, as she's already in one," he told her calmly. Yuffie eyed him suspiciously and despite his composure, thought she detected an uncomfortable flush in the dim light emanating from the open closet near the front door. He was so careful about it, though; she thought she could afford to let it go.

"So, where's Vinnie?"

Sephiroth raised a gloved hand, gestured at the bathroom. "The water just went off."

As though this was some sort of cue, the crack of light beneath the door died and Vincent stepped out into the darkness, shirtless, towel draped around his shoulders. Darkly drenched hair only pronounced his pallor. He slow-blinked, apparently quite relaxed by the hot water. "Shower's free."

She'd seen him in similar states of undress, but he'd rarely been so mellow. Somehow the softness leant something to his colouring... sufficient to say, her brain was tracing the contours of his chest thoughtfully, wistfully, and leaving the rest of her body to look after itself. Yuffie cocked that same teasing eyebrow, her mouth moving without her. "Naw, really Vinnie?"

He shrugged, disgruntled attitude returning, and shrugged the towel closer around him. "Use it or don't; it makes no difference to me." He told her coolly, and stepped quietly past them, rubbing absently at his hair with a loose section of towel. Sephiroth's teeth gleamed in the darkness, a few feet from Yuffie's head.

"Might not matter to you, Valentine, but it matters to me. You'll just have to wait, _Lady_ Kisaragi." And with a wink of a brilliantly glowing mako eye, he'd turned to take over the bathroom. Once again, the door was firmly closed before the light was turned on. Yuffie sulked.

"Great, now I'll have to wait 'til tomorrow. Mister General in there'll use up all the hot water in the city washing _his_ hair. I'm surprised you didn't run out already with Aeris having gone in first." This was directed at Vincent, sitting on the far side of the window bed. To her surprise, a smirk curved his lips, a tooth pointier than it should have been snagging on the darker skin.

"We did."

Almost simultaneously, the slitted light from the bathroom vanished. Moments later, mako eyes glowed from the darkness as Sephiroth strode out into the main room. Despite the darkness, it was plain to see he was irritated.

"Thanks for the heads-up, Valentine."

Yuffie muffled her laughter in her hands and threw herself delightedly backwards onto the bed next to Vincent. She curled awkwardly to remove her left shoe and sock, then used her toes to tug at the laces of her right until she could wriggle it off, also. Then, writhing her way up to the bedhead, she flipped the covers over her. This involved an expert sinuous movement from the shoulders to the hips, dragging the blankets down the bed as her weight lifted, and then swiftly pulling her legs up to her chest as she whipped the sheets back up to her chin.

Sephiroth was briefly distracted from his sulk to stare at her, grumpily perplexed. "You did that backwards, you know." Yuffie smiled brightly at him and resolutely closed her eyes on his cold-showered person. His snort was disdainful, but he spoke no more.

Vincent remained a thoughtful weight near her feet for almost half an hour before he, too, slithered backward on the blankets. He didn't show any signs of pulling them over himself, though. Yuffie frowned and rolled over to face him.

"Vinnie Valentine, are you two or twenty-seven? Get under the damn sheets, Rocket Town's freezing this time of year. All that open sea a couple miles away."

Vincent turned his head just enough to reveal a glimmering red eye through an angled fall of hair. Yuffie stared at him as sternly as she could manage, which wasn't very, considering he still wasn't wearing a shirt. Finally, in two shrugging motions, Vincent yanked the covers down to below his hips, then over his long legs. His human hand brought them carefully to his chin, leaving the claw between them like some great old-fashioned sword-sign of good faith.

Probably, Yuffie would have rolled her eyes. But a sudden warmth had struck her. Even with the great bronze arm on the other side of the sheets, he seemed to emanate heat that spread like wildfire across the bed, infecting the sheets around her almost as though he was running a fever. Yet he seemed perfectly comfortable, staring stoically at the ceiling. Yuffie swallowed, too loudly, she felt.

"Night-night everyone," she tried to say. It came out in a whisper. Vincent's visible eye shifted lazily toward her again and slowly, slowly blinked.

"**Cmaab famm,** Yuffie."

To her very great surprise, Sephiroth added a halting, "**Kuut hekrd**," and was silent. Her eyes widened and she saw Vincent twitch, but his face was blank when she focused on it more clearly. With a heavy sideways shrug, Yuffie closed her eyes, emptied her mind and started to breathe deeply.

Hours later, she was still wide awake. Wide awake and sweating slightly. Definitely running a fever, she decided, wriggling a foot free of its trappings to dangle in the slightly more comfortable air of the hotel room. A scowl slithered across her features and she opened her eyes. "Vincent," she hissed.

He was still staring at the ceiling, although he blinked at the sound of her voice. "Yuffie, you should be sleeping." His voice was almost hoarse. _Was_ he coming down with something? She resisted the urge to kick him.

"Maybe I would be if you weren't so _goddamn hot._"

Vincent's head snapped toward her so fast his red eyes formed a colour blur in the darkness, mouth slightly ajar in what may have been either horror or pure shock. Yuffie had a split second to reflect upon her phrasing before she felt her face begin to flame.

"_Shutupshutupshutup_, I didn't mean it like-- look, are you sick or something?" She asked swiftly, grimacing determinedly at him. Evidently deciding to just ignore the entire matter, Vincent went back to staring at the ceiling, although he did shift uncomfortably on the mattress.

"No, Yuffie. I will move if you would prefer...?"

It was a chivalrous offer, but Yuffie's rebuttal was instant and furious, no matter how low her voice. "Get real, Vincent. _What's wrong? _What's up with the uber-fever?"

Silence. Once again, Yuffie restrained the foot that was aching to lash out with untrimmed toe nails and punt him onto the floor. Eventually Vincent muttered, "It seems to be an effect of Chaos' activity."

Immediately, Yuffie felt her anger evaporate. He hated talking about the demon, and now she'd gone and drawn attention to it, like a big fat goober. _Shit._ And once again her mouth came to her rescue:

"Oh. Well... thanks for letting me lie here _worrying_, Vinnie. I thought you had a _fever._"

Vincent's eyes slipped closed, he seemed to breathe more deeply for a moment, and then he rolled onto his side, claw arm held awkwardly out before him. "My apologies, Yuffie. I am grateful that you worry for me, but it is unnecessary. You should be sleeping."

Blessing her lips, her teeth, her tongue, Yuffie took over again with a soft snort and a sharp tug delivered to an encroaching tendril of dark hair. "Bullshit. Anyway, you're one to talk - you haven't slept a wink since the nightmare, have you?"

Once again his eyes slipped closed momentarily, and this time Yuffie perceived that it was a masking technique. "No." The admission was grudging, but swift.

"Why not?"

Vincent's eyes were hard like rubies. "There are things I do not wish to see," he replied obliquely, and Yuffie's lips curved downward of their own accord. Her fingers were still twining through the lock of hair; she tugged it again in what she hoped was a soothing fashion. He seemed to take it as a demand for further information, as he stared at her mournfully. "If I do not sleep often, I have found my dreams are less... painful." Yuffie's eyes softened, saddened, and she found her throat aching at the simplicity of his statement. _It hurts when I do, so I don't._ She swallowed, forcing the abrupt lump out of her throat, and struggled to find some useful reply to that.

"...I... I'm sorry..."

Vincent stared hard at her for several seconds and then, all of a sudden, the chill grief in his eyes evaporated, replaced by amusement, and even slight confusion. "I was under the impression that it was _my _job to lament facts I cannot change."

Yuffie gave a small, shocked gasp of laughter, smothering it swiftly with her free hand. The finger in Vincent's hair tightened, pulling, but not uncomfortably. The mattress shook with the force of her giggles until she could calm them, at which point she looked back at him, fondness and relief plain in the strangely clear orbs. A lazy grin had parted her lips, their rosy shade near matching the amused flush that lingered on her cheeks.

Vincent found that his breath had quickened, and swallowed harshly, averting his eyes. In the silent moment that followed, a dry cough echoed, making them both jump.

"I feel I must remind both of you to keep your hands to yourselves until I, and Aeris, are at a separate and distant location."

Yuffie's eyes squeezed shut, her cheeks flaming, and Vincent experienced the wholly unfamiliar sensation of wanting, simultaneously, for a hole in the depths of the Planet to open up and swallow him whole, and for Yuffie to move and give him a clear shot at Sephiroth's head.

"And preferably, until you are married," Sephiroth added, with a tinge of what may have been malignant glee.

And while Vincent rolled onto his back and died a swift, uncompromising death of utter mortification, Yuffie did the only thing she could think of, which was to grab her pillow and fling it as hard as she possibly could in the direction of Sephiroth's head.

There was a 'flump' as the pillow impacted with his raised forearm, and a chuckle. "Nice try, Kisaragi, but I wasn't General for my hairstyle."

Yuffie's voice was strained, and she could swear had regressed about five years in high-pitched whininess. "Oh my gawd, _why _didn't we leave you frozen in the crater?"

If he replied, she didn't hear it; she was distracted by Vincent's weight shifting off the bed, slipping out from between the covers. She rolled to face him, but his pale back was to her as he grasped his shirt and cloak from where they had lain, drying, draped over the chairs by the window. Her protests fell silent at the sight of white flesh gleaming through hair like floating ink. Large, irregular patches of flesh the luminescent white of scar tissue, reddened slightly, covered the base of his shoulder blades. Claw marks ran rampant up his ribs, marks of extreme violence long healed, but not well or easily.

He shrugged on his shirt, wrapped his cloak about him, and silently left the room, the apartment. Yuffie knew that, were she to rise and go to the window, she would see him, slouching off into the Rocket Town night. If the rain hadn't returned soon after they'd touched down in Rocket Town, she might have been able to hear his heavy, metal-plated footsteps.

"...Sephiroth, if he gets hurt out there tonight, I will stick your sword somewhere it ain't comfy for you." She whispered, tugging the disarrayed sheets closer to her. Now that Vincent's strange warmth was gone, the room was unpleasantly cold. She dragged her foot back underneath the blankets, and spent a few minutes shivering.

"Hey..."

"Yes, Yuffie?" Sephiroth inquired, perfectly alert. A hint of smugness still coloured his tone, but he sounded more serious now. Maybe he was worried about her threat. _Only NOT_, she added in her head, teeth gritted.

"Can I have that pillow back? It was warm."

Sephiroth snorted. "Spoils of war."

"_Dammit._" Several more minutes, shivering and worrying, and she said, "Sephiroth, I'm cold. Give me back my goddamn pillow."

"You could always just use Valentine's," the swordsman suggested silkily. Yuffie thought not. Even if he did come back tonight, the last thing she needed him to see was her, nose buried in the interesting smells that still clung to the last thing he'd rested his head on. Apparently knowing her response, a leer entered Sephiroth's voice. "Failing that, you are _most _welcome to come and sleep on my other side."

Yuffie's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, the voice so low and intimate it might've sent a shiver through _Barret_. She drew in a gasping breath and whisper-screeched, "Sephiroth Whatever-The-Hell-Your-Last-Name-Is, you are the _last_ person in this team I would have taken for a pervert!"

There was a whooshing sound and Yuffie's pillow landed neatly on her head. She yanked it off and turned to glare at the offending SOLDIER, who was lying on his back with his eyes closed, covers pulled up to his chin.

"You can only hang around Zack so long before things start to rub off."

* * *

A/N: Aeris actually disappeared for a while in this chapter until I realised there was definitely something wrong with having Seth's wife just... not sleep in the same room as him. Whoops. (And was I the only one who wanted, very briefly, to murder him in that scene? Rrrgh!)

I'm either better at grammar than I thought, or I destroyed Word's grammar checker, because I had a sentence about six lines long in there somewhere, and it didn't make a peep.

Since the fanart mention got incredibly long, I'm just going to post the links in my profile. I have three 'inspired by' images by **Kiyoshi**, and I've done a few character sketches myself, so if you want to see them, drop by my profile and follow the yellow brick-- er. Links.

**InuKagNoMoreDreams** - Nice to be appreciated. :) Reno I'd been pronouncing like the city, whereas it's actually pronounced just like it would be in Japanese: two short syllables. Yuffie is Yuu-Fii. Cait Sith is Cat Shii. (As in, the sith/sidhe of Irish folklore. If you've seen _Hellsing_, this goes for Baobhan Sith/Sidhe, too, whose name is often, for reasons unbeknownst to me, spelled Bubbancy. WTF.)

**Seventhe** (and everyone else who noticed) - Thankyou for noticing the parallel between Chaos and Da Chao. You will know more shortly, but suffice to say I love you for picking up on it. I was afraid I was being too subtle.

**Jesse-James-0014** - Logic serves you well. ;) Follow that train of thought. You'll find out more about Chaos and Imbuing later, but suffice to say at the time it was a rather imprecise brand of science.

**JML** - Fufufu... Da Chao has always pissed me off with its inexplicable thereness, so I'm giving it a backstory. XD

**Screeches of a Mortally Wounded Poodle**- You'll find out all about Vinnie and his dreams within five chapters, I think. (No promises. Useless notes.)


	35. Hit and Miss

Disclaimer: I do not own _Final Fantasy VII_, nor do I own any component of it. I do own everything else in this fic.

A/N: Finally had a windfall as far as clear planning goes, so I ought to be quite all right for the next four to five chapters; here's hoping! I was sorely tempted to call this chapter "Hit and Yeah!", but had the distinct impression that would have been silliness. ;D

If I don't post this today, you won't get it 'til the weekend, and I'd rather be early than late, so here you are. :)

**Faith and Feather **

Chapter 35: Hit and Miss

Ryyu found that it was exceptionally difficult to concentrate, with Laurent persistently rubbing at his left eye. He was only in the corner of her vision, but the abrupt, vicious movements were distracting all the same - hardly a good thing when she was trying to convince her leader not to act foolishly, as he seemed intent on doing.

"I am quite serious, Bahamut. She is young, but powerful. If she trusts in her father, as we know she did, she will realise that he had a reason for siding with us in this. If we can convince her before she learns of these… abilities… we may yet be able to salvage the situation."

Ryyu twisted her gloved finger absently through her long bangs, frowning, and resisting the ever-growing and extremely childish urge to kick Laurent under the table. "I do not agree, Titan. She will never believe that her father condoned the deaths of three - four, now - of his closest advisors. And she should not, for he did not."

"She has no proof of that. She will be easier to manipulate because of her grief and uncertainty. Godo was acting to save the Planet, as she has done in the past."

_For someone who told Godo he underestimated children, you are certainly doing an admirable job of that, yourself,_ she thought with no small amount of irritation. She voiced it, not at her leader, but at the Phoenix-Imbued: "Will you _stop_ that?"

Laurent gave her a wounded look, much aided by his swollen eyes. "Yeah. Shit. Sorry. They're all prickly. Must've been the smoke or something." Ryyu's hard expression did not waver. He chose to ignore this, and turned to Titan. "All right, so we kidnap the kid. What are we going to do if she _does_ call Leviathan?"

Titan shook his head, sending that dusty mop of hair to falling into pale, malignant eyes.

"She will not. The Shinra came close to erasing that part of her history; we have made certain of it. Until we explain, until we teach her, she will not understand. And so, she will not be able to truly call Leviathan."

He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, the lines in his face becoming deeply engraved, as though in stone. Ryyu eyed him curiously as his eyelids flickered, his fingertips tracing dreamily over the worn leather of the conference table.

"They are… in… Rocket Town."

His eyes opened again, draining gradually from a blind white back to their strangely vibrant brown. He cocked his head at first the dragon, and then the phoenix, then slowly inclined his neck until he was staring at his fingertips against the tabletop.

"Go. Bring her to me. The sooner we have Leviathan firmly back on our side, where he belongs, the better."

And walking out into the deluge, watery-eyed Laurent on her heels, Ryyu reflected that that statement, at least, she agreed with.

* * *

Dawn in Rocket Town was said to be a beautiful event at any time of year, but with the rain, it was difficult to make out the sun's stately appearance at the furthest edge of the ocean. Still, the dim light gave them something to be getting on with, and Cid was sitting at his kitchen table, wondering where his wife had hidden all of his cigarettes. 

He'd never thought she knew where he hid them; now, he suspected she'd known all along, and was only know putting the knowledge to use. He just wished she'd use her powers for good instead of evil - a wish, he realised as she turned from the sink to set his tea before him, which was already partially realised. He sipped at it appreciatively, and sighed in contentment.

"You're the best, babe."

Shera's hair was loose to her shoulders this morning, mousy wavelets dipping just past her collarbone, since it tended to dry wavy. She smiled tired, hands clasped around a mug of her own. She'd never understood Cid's need for a saucer, but the pilot reckoned it probably didn't matter much in the long run, so long as she was prepared to keep two separate sets of tea-ware, which she was.

"Not many people I'd be up this early for, either," she reminded him gently, and rested her nose on the edge of the mug to be warmed by the steam. Cid grinned and stretched, the movement made difficult by the number of old sweaters and jackets he was wearing - Verde had made few demands, but had been explicit on the importance of keeping warm, and that was something Shera had had no intention of letting slide. Almost the moment he'd lumbered out of the bathroom, she'd pressed extra garments into his hands and eyed him sternly until he took them.

Cid was never confident about arguing with her in the mornings. It tended to be hazardous to his health, or at least his hearing.

"Do you know where you'll be heading next?" Shera inquired, eyes still closed but eyebrows quirked. "From what I heard yesterday, it didn't seem as though you knew what to do."

Cid shrugged. "Not a clue. They've taken care of all the information we could find, so I guess they're trying to keep us in the dark as much as possible. We don't even know what they want."

Shera sighed, and set down her tea, walking around the edge of the table and tracing its edge with her fingertips. "So long as it's not somewhere dusty… or too cold…"

Cid snorted. "You honestly think the cold's gonna bother me wrapped up in all this junk?" He raised his arms, well padded with sweaters, and blinked as Shera sat down between them, in his lap, regarding him frankly from several inches away. One arm around his shoulder, the other's thumb stroking at his unshaven cheek, she tilted her head at him and shook it in exasperation.

"You won't get hypothermia, but the cold air might irritate your lungs. The last thing you need's another hazard to your breathing." She murmured. "I'm… worried about you."

Cid's hands came to rest on his wife's waist, and he muttered, "'m a tough son-of-a-bitch, y'know," before he kissed her. She let out a soft, contented sort of sigh, and her arms tightened around his neck. It really had been a long time since he'd seen her, Cid realised as a familiar hunger sparked hotly in his stomach. A really long time… His hands slid slowly from her waist, around her, up her back, and he froze at an amused-sounding cough from the hallway.

"Looks like you're hazard enough to his breathing, Shera," Cloud commented with a sly grin. "Sorry to interrupt. Didn't realise the kitchen was out of bounds this early in the morning."

Shera stood up, blushing slightly but still smiling at Cloud. "Good morning. Tea?"

Cloud shook his head, a smirk still playing about his mouth. "Thanks, but no thanks. The strength you two drink it, might as well be turpentine." He did draw up a chair, though, and sat down opposite Cid, placing a smallish sack on the tabletop with a 'thunk'. Cid nudged it curiously as Cloud bent to pull on his boots.

"That what I think it is?" He asked. Cloud nodded.

"Probably. I didn't want to bug Yuffie with it, since she was… upset… but we really need to know what we're up against. If we assume Gast and Hojo were working with all the Summon materia, and we take out that bag, the cracked Leviathan, and the Shiva that Feather sealed, we should have an outline of which Imbued we can expect to face."

Cid grimaced. "Man, you're taking a chance going to see Yuffie with something like that this early in the morning. Hope you got your last will and testament sorted."

Cloud grinned, a little sheepishly. "Yeah, well. Better to get it over with, right?"

Shera, standing near the window, frowned. "You'd better take an umbrella with you, then. The rain over the ocean looks heavier now, and that's where the clouds are coming from. You'll be soaked by the time you get to the Shanghai. I think there's one near the back door…" So saying, she vanished down the hall to get it.

Cid drained the last of his teacup and stared comfortably at his kitchen ceiling for a few moments. "So, kid, where _are_ we headed next?"

Cloud was silent a few moments as he stood and picked up his materia sack. "Not sure. We ought to stay away from populated areas, I think. It's only a matter of time before the Imbued decide they don't care who gets hurt, as long as we do. Thanks, Shera," he added as the woman returned, bearing a black - well, mostly black - umbrella. Shera shrugged helplessly at his expression of disappointed disbelief upon further examining her find.

"All we have. Sorry."

Cloud stared at the ballet-dancing Moogles that pranced along the umbrella's edge, and sighed uncertainly. "'s alright... I'm secure in my masculinity…"

* * *

When Aeris opened the door for Cloud, Yuffie appeared to be tied in some sort of knot on the worn carpet at the end of the window bed. "That looks painful," he commented thoughtlessly, and Yuffie glanced up at him in surprise, her face partially obscured by her calf. 

"Huh? Oh - hi, Cloud." She seemed to unfold gracefully, until she was lying flat on her stomach again, and then she jumped to her feet. "What's up? And did you talk to anyone before you left Cid's? Because I _know_ Tifa wouldn't let you go out in public with your hair like that."

Cloud raised his eyebrows, and a hand to pat ineffectually at his hair. "Tifa was asleep. Mmm. Forgot to comb it after my shower." The damage was done, now. He wasn't sure whether he should be hopeful no one had seen the hair past the Moogle-print umbrella, or vice-versa. "Where are the others?"

Yuffie's happy expression dissipated, and she angrily muttered something about Vincent probably hanging himself from the remains of the rocket launch pad. Cloud wondered if he should have organised rooms differently, noting the pale stain on her cheeks. Aeris, of course, just smiled merrily, as though this was all to be expected. "Well, Vincent was gone when I woke up, but Sephiroth is taking a shower. Yuffie beat him to it this morning, and he didn't want to wait a moment longer to wash his hair, apparently." Yuffie snorted, flopping down on her bed crossing her legs, hands on knees.

"Can't blame him. My showers aren't long, but you took up all the water last night, and Vincent didn't warn him before he got in." Aeris poked out her tongue, and Cloud shook his head in bewilderment. Whatever had gone on, he'd probably never understand it. Probably just as well that Aeris was here to take care of things; she'd always been better at this sort of thing than he was, anyway…

"What brings you here so early, Cloud?" And the wicked twinkle in her eye immediately reminded him that, saviour of the Planet or no, the girl had still lived half her life in Midgar. "Did Tifa kick you out, poor thing?" Cloud felt himself going red, barely noticed Yuffie's sudden transition from sullen to smirking, and tried to think of something impressive to say while his cheeks blazed as merrily as a Nibelian fire.

"U-uh, I wanted to know if Yuffie'd look at the materia we found in the lab under Midgar," he ground out, feeling about two years old as he detatched the materia sack from his utility belt. "It's all Summon, but we weren't sure exactly what they were. We thought maybe if you went through them, we'd know which Summons haven't got Imbued to tie to them, since all these had corpses..."

Yuffie's smirk froze for an instant, and Cloud belatedly wished he'd phrased that a little better, since one of her retainers had been one of those corpses, in the end. To his relief, she waved her hand at him, beckoning him closer. "Yeah, sure. Just tip 'em all out here and--" She stopped speaking as Cloud complied, an avalanche of mismatched materia halves quickly spreading to form a small, ruby sea on the hastily made bedspread. Cloud immediately realised that he probably should have thought to keep them all separate, but it hadn't seemed important at the time...

"**Tysh**..." Yuffie muttered, thin fingers brushing them all smooth and flat, so that no materia part overlayed another. "I bet you wear mismatched socks..."

"Sorry. Can you still...?"

Yuffie looked up at him then, a wry expression on her face. "Of course I can still tell what's what. I wasn't a Great Materia Hunter for nothing, y'know." Her right hand plucked the topmost, right-hand materia half and she eyed it critically for a moment. "Ramuh... and..." Her left ran swiftly over the rest of the hoard, top to bottom, right to left, until she plucked a similar hemisphere from the middle of the scarlet, jewel-like glimmers, and declared, "Ramuh. Level two, unoriginal." She set them both aside, over to the top right again, curve up. She pronounced the next one to be Bahamut, also unmastered and unoriginal, and aligned it neatly next to the completed Ramuh.

Cloud took a seat and watched her work methodically through the materia. Aeris slipped past him to boil the room's kettle. Yuffie barely seemed to notice.

"...and Ifrit, Mastered, unoriginal... Hades... and Hades... level three, original... BahamutZERO... and..."

There were only eight materia in that bag, he knew. They could already take out Shiva, Leviathan and Typhon - and he was glad that they wouldn't be facing whatever unknown had been contained in the materia Yuffie had found in the Midgar display room. But as Yuffie progressed through the materia, there was a growing heaviness in his stomach... until she told him that Knights of the Round was there, would not be used against them...

"...One, unoriginal, and the best for last--" She plucked the two remaining hemispheres from the quilt and held them up with a grin. "--Knights of the Round, Mastered, original. Glad this baby's still on our side." And then in true Yuffie style, her face became comically mournful. "How could anyone take a Mastered Knights of the Round materia and cut it in half?"

Cloud laughed lightly, echoing the relief fizzing through his innards, as Aeris set down a mug of tea for him, for herself, and set Yuffie's on the bedside table. "So, what does that leave us up against?"

Yuffie considered. "There's no W-Summon, but something tells me it'd be stupid to even try, if Knights of the Round didn't work. So, since we already have three of the remaining materia, that means that Choco/Mog, Titan, Phoenix and Neo-Bahamut are still unaccounted for." She was cheerful as she reached for her tea. "Which is neat, because Phoenix and Neo-Bahamut are the most powerful, and we've escaped them relatively unharmed once already. Next time we encounter them, we'll be much more--"

Her final word was drowned out by a sudden explosion from the back of the village that set the structure to shuddering. Aeris dropped her tea, eyes widening. Yuffie was on her feet in under a second, jumping the bed to peer out the window at the pillar of smoke rising from behind Cid's house...

"It's at Cid's!" Her voice was shocked and angry, and she was turning from the window, eyes fixed firmly on the shuriken resting next to the television, when Cloud saw, so slowly, and yet, so fast-- grey and indistinct past the patterned louvers above the main window--

"Yuffie, look out!"

The ninja barely had time to register the words and fling herself forward before the window shattered, showering them all in flying shards of glass, and the Bahamut-Imbued landed in a neat crouch just inside the window. Cloud realised the room was too small to draw his sword, realised Aeris' staff was resting in the corner by the window, realised the Bahamut-Imbued had drawn some sort of Wutaian knife from a leather strap on her boot, and that Yuffie was four feet too far from her Conformer, barefoot, and surrounded by broken glass.

"We meet again, Leviathan's daughter," said the Bahamut-Imbued, and lunged.

* * *

The explosion rocked the house, and destroyed part of it, as Tifa realised when she discovered the back door halfway down the hall. She had been in the kitchen, talking over breakfast with Feather and Reeve, when the sheer noise - not to mention the head, and the fact that the house felt like it was going to fall down around their shoulders - had brought pale girl to her knees. Barking swift orders, Cid had snatched up the Venus Gospel and charged out into the yard, Barret hot on his heels. 

Her fingers hit grass, steaming from the sudden heat, and she couldn't help but stare at the charred wreckage that had once been the Tiny Bronco. In front of it stood a smirking individual with one finger rubbing lazily at his eye.

Cid made apoplectic choking noises for a few seconds before finally settling into a hoarse roar of unchecked fury, charging at the man and swinging his spear wildly. "Son of a _bitch!_ What the _fuck_ did you do that for? You--" He coughed loudly, solidly, and brought the hand that wasn't currently spearing the Venus Gospel at the stranger's head to clutch painfully at his own throat. Barret took careful aim past Cid and fired, but the younger man was too quick, darting backward over metal that turned molten at the touch of his feet. Tifa stared, then darted forward to Cid's side.

"Who? An Imbued?" She asked urgently, knowing that all she had in this fight were her bare fists and booted feet - and if his skin melted metal, she certainly didn't want to be playing contact sports. Cid choked, spat blood over scorched grass and earth, and wiped his mouth with finality.

"Fuckin' Phoenix-Imbued," he muttered. Tifa moved to block Cid from any oncoming attacks, but the young man with the strangely flickering spikes of hair seemed more interested in taunting Barret with small licks of flame. Tifa could almost see the black man's temper rising. She decided to take the chance as the Phoenix-Imbued dodged another volley of bullets, and charged straight at him with a flying kick.

He had time to look surprised, to half-turn towards her, and Tifa was sure she was as shocked as he seemed to be when she connected. The Phoenix stumbled backward, raising a hand towards her as she withdrew, sensitive to the warning heat she could feel above her toes, and he sent a jet of white flame chasing her back towards the house. Tifa side-stepped it, arms raised, ready for another, but the Phoenix seemed distracted, rubbing furiously at his eyes. Barret fired, and this the Phoenix-Imbued countered with a wall of flame so fierce that Reeve and Feather, who had come thundering down the hall with their weapons, cringed against the house to avoid the heat.

Tifa had to cover her eyes to avoid being blinded, and when she could look again, her enemy was breathing raggedly - but the angry red marks her boot had left on his shoulder had vanished. _No... couldn't be...!_ She had to time to complete the thought as the Phoenix-Imbued turned toward her, eyes glittering coldly. _...almost like mat--_

_"Laurent! Please, stop!"_

Feather's voice was almost unrecognisable, so desperately did she speak, but the Phoenix-Imbued halted, horrified, and dropped back, rubbing at his eye again. "...baby girl...?" He muttered disbelievingly. "You're not... you're supposed to be at the inn with..." He stared at the knives in her hands, the barrel of the President of Neo-Shinra's trembling handgun, and Tifa suddenly realised how horribly young he was.

He vanished suddenly in a flash of fire, and Tifa immediately circled, trying to find him... to no avail. The Phoenix-Imbued had vanished as swiftly as he had appeared; she couldn't see or sense him anywhere.

Reeve put up his gun after a moment's hesitation, turning to the softly weeping Feather. Her knives lay abandoned at her feet. "...that was him? The one you met in the complex?" Feather only nodded miserably, unable to speak, and Reeve suddenly pulled her into tight hug, watching Tifa over the top of her head with pained amber eyes. Barret cursed explosively.

"Ain't no time for that! Didn't y'hear him mention the inn!" He barged past Reeve and Feather, nearly trampling Nanaki, lurking behind them in the hall - and Tifa's heart leapt into her throat.

"Cloud...!" He'd barely registered in her mind before her feet were pounding over the ruined lawn, past Reeve and Feather, past Red, past Shera, still fretting in the kitchen, past Barret as he pushed aside the door--

_WHUMP._

--and slammed straight into Vincent, sending them both sprawling into the dust and theOutsider skittering away over the pavement. He had raised his claw as though to attack, but she'd been moving too fast and the limb had never made it. Now he stabbed it into the ground as he shot to his feet.

"The explosion?" A terse demand, eyes flashing. Tifa struggled to her feet and to assemble her thoughts.

"The Tiny Bronco, the Phoenix-Imbued-- he said, about the inn--"

She halted as a shrill, furious shriek rang out across the village, silenced abruptly. Vincent's reaction was faster than anything in Tifa's memory, eyes snapping wide and _is it? could it be?_ terrified, his lips forming the words, the name, the owner of the scream so abruptly cut off _Yuffie!_ and his boots squealing on the concrete, so swiftly did he slam into action. Before Tifa had even gained her balance he was ten feet away, hunched low, claw flung out to the side. Tifa started to chase after him, realising he had abandoned his gun and wondering why, why, how could Vincent lose his sense so completely - when suddenly she understood.

Shooting north over the village (_flying_, some part of Tifa thought with disbelief, _she's flying_) was the black-clad figure of the Bahamut-Imbued, struggling with the dead weight of Yuffie's limp body. Tifa had time to register Yuffie's entire side covered with blood, the thinly veiled surprise on the Bahamut-Imbued's face at the sight of them, before Vincent launched himself upward with a snarl that chilled her blood, and immense purple wings erupted from his shoulders, spearing through what little solid material there remained in his tattered cloak.

Bahamut hefted Yuffie higher with her left arm, raised her right hand, eyes blazing with pale fire-- and Chaos slammed into her with a feral snarl, catching her by the arm with long, vicious claws and squeezing. The Bahamut-Imbued snarled and did the only thing she could do in the situation - she dropped Yuffie, aiming a kick at the demon that had made her bleed.

Chaos lunged after Yuffie, completely ignoring the dragon's retaliatory attack and snatching the girl from the air before she had the chance to hit the ground. Tifa screamed a warning as the Bahamut-Imbued flung her arms wide, inscribing a circle in the air, energy crackling between her teeth and over her tongue. Chaos cowled its wings about them just in time to defend from the Gigaflare attack and Tifa, who had been trying to get close enough to attack, skidded to a halt as she watched flaming skulls erupt from the earth to attack the Bahamut-Imbued in mid-air.

A burst of flame, and the Phoenix-Imbued was there, wrapping his arms about the furious Bahamut's waist. Another, and they vanished in a wreath of flame.

The skulls buried themselves beneath the earth; the ground resettled itself and the sickening scent of sulphur retreated. Tifa ventured closer. "...Vincent...?"

A shudder ran through Chaos, and the demon's wings drew back to reveal Yuffie lying bloody and unconscious in the dirt. Ignoring the possible danger of Chaos' violent nature, shocked beyond words, Tifa dropped to her knees beside the ninja. "Yuffie...!"

Chaos' claws slid beneath the girl's shoulders, uttering a language-less growling croon, and with the girl draped at such an odd angle against the beast's scaled chest, she felt her heart sink back into her ribcage again.

Blood-stained, pale and unconscious... but still breathing.

* * *

Laurent's sniffling was beginning to grate on Ryyu's nerves, but she didn't have the heart to rebuke him. He was little more than a boy, really; terribly attached to the people around him. And when they had returned, and Titan had said what he had… she understood that the Phoenix was feeling utterly miserable. 

He kept pawing at his eyes, now red and weeping, though the iris glowed a paler, blanker blue by the hour. Ryyu grasped his wrists firmly and shook her head at him. "Leave them alone. You will only make them worse."

Laurent stared pitifully up at her. "I'm sorry. It's my fault. I couldn't hurt her."

Ryyu smirked and let go of his wrists. He crossed them over the tattoo on his chest, brows lowering as tears of pain and irritation ran down his cheeks. "You can't hurt anyone, boyo." Laurent let out a choking sort of laugh and slumped back against the wall.

"I can't, but he can. He was so angry…" He shivered, one hand rising to brush at his eye – but he caught himself and blinked instead, forcing the limb back to his chest. "…I thought the island would break up…"

Ryyu turned away with a dismissive sound. "You worry too much. He should have known better." Laurent sniffed once, twice, and wrapped his arms around his torso.

"It's cold. I'm cold. Has it always been this cold, here?"

Ryyu, too, could feel the encroaching chill within her bones, now, but she ignored him, mouth set in a cold and stubborn line. She raised her hands to her face, gloved fingertips tracing slowly and gently over her painted eyelids. The gloved snagged. She detached them with patience, following the scaly, scarlet ridges as they travelled over her temples, up her brow and hovered above her ears. She suspected those nubs were the beginning of horns.

It was a strange side effect, to be sure – it had happened to none of the others that she'd known. Somehow, the mako that flowed in her veins had begun to crystallise on her skin. The crusting had merely been stiffness at first, but had developed swiftly into scarlet, iridescent scaling over her eyelids and up into her hair. Every time she removed her gloves, she saw that her fingernails were darkening, thickening, lengthening – she was growing claws. No other Imbued had begun to take on the characteristics of their chosen god… but then, Ryyu reflected, none of them had been so close to their patron as she had, before this all had begun.

She tapped absently at the pre-horn, and drew her fingertip down her temple and over her cheek, testing. Yes, they had itched, madly, and stung while they sprang up. She suspected they were coloured with her blood, as well as mako – she certainly bled fiercely if she tried to tear scales off. They detached, themselves, she had early realised, when she had scratched her forehead in irritation and been rewarded with a small shower of glittering shards. It was like a weekly moult – they grew, and fell off, and grew again… this constant irritation spreading across her skin…

And when they did fall off; when the scales did die, she noticed… they were no longer red, but green. No longer filled with her blood, but plain, undiluted mako. As though the substance had overpowered the life pounding through the scales, forcing it out, and killing the scale in the process…

Ryyu caught Laurent's wrist again as he reached to rub at his eyes, and he looked up at her gratefully before returning his hands to his sides. She placed a hand upon his head and ruffled his hair in an uncharacteristic display of tolerance and affection, and he glances at her again, blue eyes puzzled.

He didn't understand what was happening to him, she knew with certainty. He didn't understand that it was happening to all of them – his crystal-blue eyes, her scarlet headdress, and the Titan's crackling bones. He didn't understand that slowly, they were dying, as Typhon had done.

But before that, she knew, tensing her fingers against his scalp, he would go blind.

And what would happen to her, she wondered. She knew the dragon as no other knew the dragon. What fate would it choose for her…?

She closed her eyes and smirked lazily. The questions she'd been trained never to ask, rising again after all this time… how nostalgic.

And, mentioning nostalgia…

The dragon remembered the violent touch of a brother, an ally, a fellow god, and – somewhere in the back of her mind –resettled its wings, curious and impatient. Blue, transmuted over time to scarlet, flesh to metal – these stuck fast in her mind.

Ryyu wondered idly if the boy she'd known as Shimusou had recognised her, too.

* * *

A/N: Well, thanks for your patience, everyone. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Incidentally, **SelenityShiroi** has more fanart at her deviantART account! http colon double-slash selenityshiroi dot deviantart dot com! Vincent, fresh from his shower in chapter thirty-four, mm-mmm. :wonders idly when the last time he had a shower was, and decides not to pursue that avenue of thought: Ick. 

I'd also like to thank MS Word for having such refined alternatives to the word 'erupt' as 'go bang' and 'blow your top'. Dear gods.

Edit: 03/08/05 - Changed 'Death Penalty' to 'Outsider'. Thanks to those who pointed that out. I _knew_ that'd happen. :sigh:

**Roaring Flame Cat** - :sweatdrop: Ne, I'm not sure glomping Sephiroth is the best way to go about making him _not_ lose his temper...

**JML** - Forget CC! Yuffie! In Vincent's game! I wept aloud in glee and merriment!

**Kuu-sama** - Now, now, can't rush these things.

**Emri** - :) Glad you like Saff-chan. He's a pain in the neck, but a cute pain in the neck and so, tolerable. Sephiroth can speak only the very barest Wutaian... he learned a few of the basics before moving on to what meant the Wutaians were going to attempt to decapitate him in battle, or whatever.

**Emily** - Aww, thanks for the encouragement. :cuddle:


	36. Moving

Disclaimer: Don't own, except what I do.

A/N: I find it amusing that I spent days anticipating writing some of these scenes, only to examine my notes and discover they had no place. Guess what happened? Out with the notes! That's my excuse for this chapter taking nearly two months, and I'm _sticking_ with it.

Also, there is more art for this fic linked from my profile. A nicer picture of Ryyu, for a start. So, if you were interested in seeing what she and Lana actually look like, mosey over and take a look.

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter 36: Moving

Tifa couldn't see Cloud's fingers through the leather of his gloves, but from the tension in the fabric, she had the strong feeling that they would be mottled red and white from the pressure he was exerting on the hilt of Ultima Weapon. He was standing beside Shera's kitchen table, staring so fiercely out the window it was a wonder the sunny, chequered curtains didn't burst into flame. He, like the rest of their company after the morning's events, was on high alert, paying intense attention to everything around him. Even so, he flinched when she touched the crook of his elbow.

"Cloud... Vincent just, ah, de-transformed." She faltered at his cool, almost blank stare. "You... you said you wanted to know." Her other hand came up to rest on his, rubbing at it gently, trying to ease the tension there. Cloud blinked and took half a breath, expression softening slightly.

"Thanks, Tifa. He should probably get some rest before we leave."

Tifa's lips pulled into a wry smile. "Well, you can try telling him that, if you like. It didn't do Sephiroth or I any good."

Cloud muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like, "Stubborn bastard..." and Tifa laughed suddenly, hiding her grin by resting her forehead on Cloud's armoured shoulder - a little harder than she should have, perhaps, for her next statement was, "Ow." Cloud's reticence was forgotten, lips parting in a disbelieving grin as his hand came to rest in her hair, gently pushing her head back so he could see the red mark on her forehead.

"I can't believe you just did that," he told her, openly amused. Tifa's eyes glimmered with laughter and pain.

"Neither can I," she confessed, giggling a little. "I think walking around on tenterhooks has gone to my head. I was just so worried about Yuffie... about both of them." She raised a hand to massage her forehead gently, and closed her eyes. Cloud, distracted, left his hand in her hair, absently tracing along the edge of her ear.

"You worry too much, Teef." He told her, a little stern, a little exasperated. "Not everything's your responsibility." Tifa opened her eyes and raised her eyebrows at him, then, a kind, but slightly sceptical look gracing her features.

"I think you need to practise what you preach, Cloud Strife."

Cloud snorted and dropped his hand to his side again, ignoring the faintly embarrassed flush that had risen along his cheeks. Tifa always knew when he was worrying, especially over something he couldn't change - like the Bahamut-Imbued's attack at the Shanghai Inn. "Well, maybe we all need to learn that lesson. If Vincent wants to wear himself out tearing all over the countryside after Yuffie and watching her while she sleeps, then maybe that's something _he_ has to deal with." He paused, the stubborn glare he'd directed at the window fading into pensive, blank blueness. "...y'know, it'd probably really creep Yuffie out if she noticed how much time he spends these days, watching over her."

Tifa's eyes sparkled as she turned away, eager to be getting on with things. "Oh," she said airily, fluttering her hands about her shoulders. "I'm not sure she'd mind at all, really."

* * *

Sephiroth disapproved of the huddled, staring way in which Valentine 'guarded'. He noticed nothing, paid attention to nothing, bar the softly breathing form of Kisaragi Yuffie. It was not prudent... but, he was forced to admit, the older man did seem to react with abnormal swiftness as soon as any move was made toward the girl. So perhaps his lack of attention to detail could be forgiven, given that any threat to Yuffie was as good as demon fodder.

Sephiroth turned his head slightly in order to delicately wrinkle his nose. Valentine had shifted from his demonic form, but the unsettling scent of reptiles still hung heavy in the room. He supposed he ought to be grateful - this way, he no longer had to avoid the creature's prohibitive wingspan, nor attempt to stay casually between Chaos and the slumbering Yuffie - a dangerous position, given Valentine's near homicidal protective urges.

The latch of the door clicked sharply and Aeris entered the room, looking concerned. Vincent's head snapped towards her with inhuman speed, but he just as quickly lost interest - the flower girl, apparently, was no threat. Aeris ventured closer to the bed, stopping at the foot of it. "Should we try to heal her? Would that help?"

Sephiroth shook his head. "Better to let her wake by herself. Wutaian methods of attack are quite ingenious. In many cases, incapacitation lasts longer if attempts to heal are made." Aeris' green eyes were perturbed, and she took a hasty step backward, as though she thought her mere presence might have been enough to worsen the girl's condition. Sephiroth resisted the urge to smile.

"Has Cloud decided on a course of action?" He asked instead. Aeris' dubious expression vanished at once, replaced by a calm acceptance. She nodded, and drew herself up straight, as though she thought she was reporting.

"He wants as much information as possible, and the last place we might be able to scrounge anything up is Professor Gast's house, in Glacier Village. If the worst should happen, at least there are areas to the north where innocent lives won't be at stake - we could even take up residence in the Forgotten Capital for a while, if we had to." He sensed some reluctance, there, but her face and voice betrayed nothing, so perhaps it was just his imagination. "We're going to leave tonight. If Yuffie's not awake by then, we'll just have to move--"

"I'm not leaving without her." Vincent's voice was sharp, his choice of words strangely impulsive. Aeris started, then smiled at him gently.

"No, of course we're not, Vincent. We'll have to move her, ourselves. If the Imbued are after her, we can't leave her to fend for herself." She approached him tentatively, looking as though she might try to rest a hand on his shoulder, but her courage failed her at the last moment and she stood at his side, hands clasped behind her back, instead. "You've done a lot today, Vincent. Won't you try to rest before we leave?"

Vincent's tone was flat, but not aggressive. "No. If I must, I'll rest in the air."

Aeris turned to Sephiroth with an exasperated shrug. He returned the gesture, a little more offhand. The gunman's words made sense. They'd be harder to locate in the air, especially if Cid forwent the usual courtesy of lights when they were airborne. Somewhere in the back of Sephiroth's mind, a tiny bell rang at that, but it was too subtle; the moment he focused on it, it slipped from his grasp. He frowned absently, and shifted his grip on Masamune.

"If we are to leave that soon, someone will need to pack for Yuffie and the rest of us. If Valentine is too stubborn to go with you... you are the only one with a key to our room."

Aeris coughed. "The Turks knocked the door down just after Yuffie went out the window. I don't think a key's going to be necessary, really." She thought for a moment. "But you're right... I'm sure you don't want Reno going through your things, right, Vincent?"

No response. Aeris sighed as she walked back past Sephiroth.

"Well, at least my packing for you won't look too strange to the hotel manager," she told him gloomily as she passed. "The room's still under 'Seth and Aeris Gainsborough', after all."

* * *

Laurent had quit the complex, preferring the icy, rocky shores and vicious waves to the cold glares and sharp tongues of his teammates. The Titan was angry again, and the Dragonlady was quiet and polite, which meant she was _really_ angry, and his eyes were hurting and all he really wanted out of this whole thing was for the people who'd woken him up and taken him in to be _happy_.

He extended his legs just enough so that the blurry steel grey and white foam of the churning ocean could apply pressure and sharp little flecks of sand and rock-rubble to his toes. Funny, how there wasn't a single barnacle clamped on these rocks. The three of them were the only living things on the island now that the others were gone...

And he _missed_ them. Ifrit help him, he missed them _so much_, and their laughter and smiles and bright eyes and quirky humour... and he was afraid, of what they'd tried to do, of what they were trying to do, of having to hurt people. He was afraid of what Titan might do to him if he refused, or even confessed his uncertainties. He was afraid, because with all this power, all this raw _power _at his disposal, he couldn't do a thing to stop Titan when he was angry. He was afraid, because his eyes wouldn't stop hurting and hurting and sometimes, when he rubbed at them, they didn't _give_ the way they were meant to; he could feel something hard and cold beyond the immediate flesh of his eyeball, his eyelid, and it scared him because his vision was by turns soft and impossibly featureless, and spiky and multi-faceted.

And so he sat and watched the ocean, because at least in the mist and the wave-spray there was relatively little to see, and no one to watch him, one knee curled to his chest, as tears of pain and loneliness nudged patiently at his eyelashes.

* * *

Yuffie thought it a little unfair that she couldn't lie dramatically flat on her back, because her stomach would loose itself on the surrounding area if given even the slightest provocation. Thus, she was slumped as dramatically as possible while propped up by her backpack, sprawled gracelessly across the widest possible area of floor space. She'd woken up on this horrible chunk of pot metal, and she wanted to get off. Unfortunately, they were still a solid two hours from Glacier, and she was going to have to put up with her stomach until then.

And her head, she thought with a sigh. She was still feeling a little weak and kittenish from her encounter with the Bahamut-Imbued... and angry, that she hadn't been able to defend against such an obvious tactic. _Especially_ since she'd been protecting Aeris and Cloud at the time. Her over-reliance on her weapon was inexcusable...

Her mood - and her crushed sense of independence - was not aided by the fact that Vincent seemed to have attached himself to her, like some weird, morbid excuse for a duckling. She briefly entertained the idea of trying to stitch him to her, and see how long he stuck around _then_, like that kid and his shadow- and then the Highwind lurched and she let out a wretched moan.

Vincent, standing a few feet away, looked down at her. She couldn't call it a sympathetic gaze - Vincent didn't seem to get sick - but they certainly weren't as cold and aloof as they used to be. Another day, that might have given her warm fuzzies, made her barf fondly on his spiky boots. (A blessing, she had always insisted, that Cloud could not afford to do without, if he was stupid enough to come bother her while she was feeling sick.) Today she narrowed her eyes at him and demanded, "What are _you_ looking at?"

He crouched, presumably to avoid causing her to strain her neck looking up at him. The concession made her jaw clench. "An ill and irritable young ninja," he told her blandly. "The same thing I've been looking at for the past three hours."

Yuffie huffed out an irritated sigh, and could feel her stomach gurgling at the sharp exhalation. "Feel free to move on, Vincent," she hinted at him. "I'm not a sideshow freak, you know. I'm not a criminal, either, or an invalid. I don't need you to baby-sit me all the damn time. I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself."

He stared at her without replying, and she felt her cheeks burn.

"Shut up! I am! It's just... it's just other people I have trouble with."

Her mother.

Aeris.

Chekhov.

Her father.

Staniv.

Yuffie's sudden change in mood must have shown in her face, for Vincent stopped crouching, and dropped firmly onto his behind, iron-covered heels squealing on the deck. It was possibly the least graceful thing she'd ever seen him do, and it was this more than the sympathy of the action that made her look up at him with soft, sad eyes.

"Yuffie..."

His eyes did not meet hers. Vincent focused instead on the tips of his claw-like fingers, flexing them slightly as the Highwind bucked and vibrated beneath them.

"You should not feel so badly, about receiving help from others. It is human nature, to rely on the people that they trust and," a barely perceptible pause, possibly attributed to the Highwind dropping several dozen feet through the air, "care for. It is not something you need be ashamed of..."

Yuffie uttered a derisive sound, which came out a good deal louder than she'd initially intended. "Pretty rich coming from you, Vincent. You never let us help you with _anything_."

Vincent flexed his claw again, a slightly bitter smile curving pale lips. "Ah, but I am not completely human." Yuffie gave him a withering expression. He inclined his head in something not entirely unlike a nod, submitting to her denial. "But even I begin to find, I... I need people, too."

Had he been looking at her at that moment, Yuffie was quite certain her breath would have caught in her throat. As it was, his eyes dipped almost shamefully to the steel floor, hidden by his lashes and the ebon mass of his hair.

Yuffie dragged her eyes away from his countenance with a small sound that, hopefully, he would interpret as her nausea getting the better of her. She pressed her hand to her mouth to this effect. In truth, her realisation shocked her - so much that she had let out an involuntary gasp. She'd always thought Vincent beautiful, certainly, but beautiful like a statue in a graveyard - pale, graceful, almost ethereal, and slightly creepy. But the fact that a half-formed thought of him saying something like that, looking at her while he said it, made the bottom of her lungs fizz out... that was something she wasn't entirely used to.

Or, if she was completely honest with herself, comfortable with. Vincent had so many hang-ups, she wouldn't have been surprised to find him on a coat rack. It sure as hell couldn't be smart to _like_ someone that that. Or healthy. _Oh, Leviathan, what have I gotten my self into now?_

Silence stretched as her eyes stared blankly in the direction of the conference room. Vincent shifted so that his shoulders were propped against a crate and the wall, legs bent for support - flying certainly wasn't smooth these days, with all the rain.

She really ought to be concentrating on getting Leviathan back into its materia, where it belonged.

As though to echo these thoughts, and reassure her that her going-to-vomit ruse had gone according to plan, Vincent murmured, "Perhaps meditation would help."

She blinked, swallowed. And as her eyes _did_ meet his, unperturbed by the violent movements of the airship and, apparently, by one wisp of hair that was resting _nanometres_ from his pupil, she was sure - she realised something.

Vincent never expected anyone else to function as autonomously as he had fashioned his own existence. If she, or anyone he had worked with, needed help, he would never leave her to fend for herself - though he would never expect anyone else to intercede on his behalf. And yet, strangely, he understood _her_ need for independence, the fine line between supporting and smothering that allowed a personality like hers to grow. He never lectured, but offered succinct advice, intriguing enough that - often without wanting, or meaning to - she was forced to puzzle out the meaning and come to an accord, with herself, or with others.

And he was prepared to sit with her in the smelly, cold cargo bay of a rusty old airship with a madman for a pilot and windy, rainy hell screaming and swarming at them from outside, prepared to risk being vomited on, have materia flung at him or be verbally abused, just so that he could be there if she needed him to be. So that he could be absolutely sure that he wasn't needed, should that be the case.

Something airy and sweet and silver hovered in the back of her throat, stung her eyes; she squeezed them shut and beamed at him, wordless for a few moments out of sheer gratitude and the magnitude of her sudden comprehension.

"Y'know, Vinnie, you might have a point there."

There was a flicker of something warm - amusement? - in his eyes as he watched her mood change. She was so glad to see it, she didn't care if he was laughing at her. She tossed her head purposefully, flicking her hair around behind her shoulders, and sat up a little straighter. The metal was cold on her mostly-bare thighs and calves as she crossed her legs and set her hands on her knees.

"You make sure to poke me when we get to Glacier Village, though, okay?"

It was there, in the barest of smiles...

"Of course, Yuffie. I will."

* * *

Titan concentrated upon the Planet's face and the limited sensation he could discern from it. Lined brown hands traced over the tabletop almost idly, nails ravaged as viciously as though by Nibel wolves. Midgar formed a dully-aching knot beneath his shoulder blade. Mideel, a constant weeping sore on his left ankle, made his whole calf throb painfully.

The motion of his hands was gentle, stirring, like the sand of a riverbed in an easy current. The movements became gradually more brittle as, in his mind's eye, he travelled northward - over a rocky, barren shore and onto crisp, sparkling snowfields. Slowly, patiently, he dredged up the furthest reaches of his perception for signs of AVALANCHE.

_There._

A grassy peninsula, blessedly ice-free - he could feel his fingertips warm a little in response to the milder clime. The phantom pressure of dozens of feet, boots and paws alike, crept across his collarbone and up the column of his neck. He smiled. They were hiking to the north.

"Glacier," he said aloud. The sound of his own voice seemed to startle him from his communion with the earth. He had to blink several times to clear his mind as well as his vision and steady his mind within his form.

Sequestered comfortably at the opposite end of their hidden conference table, resplendent in her scarlet silks, the Bahamut-Imbued watched him with patient interest. By her calm, indifferent expression, she did not share in his quiet relief at being able to sense their enemies' whereabouts once more.

"They will pass through Glacier Village, even if they do not stop there. You will be able to catch up with them easily. Take the Phoenix with you and dispose of them."

Titan was treated to a rare expression of confusion before that, too, was swept behind her perfect, blank Wutaian mask. He smiled at her brightly, jaggedly, to let her know he had seen her slip, and went on to explain his odd command.

"That friend of hers is rather dangerous, wouldn't you say? Both of them are. If either manage to convey to her, or to the Cetra, how they are to access their power, their calling... well, think of the position that will leave us in. Better to be rid of them."

The Bahamut-Imbued's lips were a flat line as she scrutinised her master. "I thought you had come to the conclusion that her power added to ours was worth the risk?"

Titan steepled his fingers and leaned back into the cool, comfortingly firm leather of his chair. "No. I was seduced by my own interest in her progress. Her aid would be useful, but… ultimately, superfluous. That is all that she would be."

Ryyu bowed her head briefly - she and the Dragon were both far too proud to give him more than that. Titan gave a shooing flutter of his hand, and she turned to walk briskly from the room. He would watch their progress from here.

* * *

When they at last arrived on the doorstep of Gast's bungalow, Aeris had to let Cloud go first. Ice had crept over the hinges and the lock of the door, so that it took several sharp blows with Ultima Weapon before it creaked reluctantly open to admit them. AVALANCHE strode into the large, open room that formed the ground level of the dwelling and stood there steaming and stamping their feet to warm themselves.

Yuffie was still a little queasy; not quite up to her usual jumping on the spot in these situations, she crouched down and sank her hands and arms as deeply as she could into Nanaki's ruff. "Man, you'd think it'd be at least a _little_ warmer inside," she complained to no one in particular. Red ignored her.

Leaning discreetly into the shivering Tifa, Cloud nodded wearily to the group. "Let's get set up. I want the Turks and Red to set up a perimeter on this floor. Keep an eye out for _any_ suspicious activity."

Reno nodded and made a few quick gestures. Elena and Rude immediately took up positions at opposite sides of the room, where they'd be able to use the consoles for cover and easily see prospective entry-points. Lana moved to wait by the door. Red snorted (Yuffie snorted in response) and waited for more readily understandable verbal commands to manifest.

"The lower floor's pretty well impenetrable, but just in case I want Vincent, Barret and Sephiroth with weapons ready at all times. I don't have to tell you - _everyone_ needs to be on guard." Cloud paused and sent a surreptitious glance toward the less combat-savvy members of the team. "But, uh... Reeve, keep your safety on, okay?"

This was met by nervous (or in Cait Sith's case, raucous) laughter. Cloud's eyes narrowed in determination.

"Right. Mosey."

* * *

Laurent shifted uneasily. He was perched uncomfortably on the roof of Gast's house. Snow-covered as it was, every time he got comfortable, his body heat would turn the snow to water, and he'd find himself slipping down the icy tiles. His summery attire wasn't thick enough to protect him from the cold, or from the irritating rasp of ill-cared-for roofing tiles against his knees and bare feet.

His fidgeting was annoying, but Ryyu had other things on her mind. Perhaps it showed on her face, she considered. That would explain Laurent's nervousness better than his near-blindness could. "Phoenix, your anxiety disturbs me."

He glanced at her, and almost immediately slid six inches down the roof before he steadied himself again. They both froze as four or five litres of slush spattered onto the ground. For a few minutes, there was no movement from inside, and then they heard the brisk squeal of hinges. Ryyu signalled to the roof of the inn, and they leapt silently across the gap and behind a row of chimney pots. From this position, they observed the Turk called Reno, Meltzer, and Nanaki exit Gast's bungalow.

Reno spoke quietly with Lana, gesturing around the corner of the house. She shrugged and moved into the doorway, hefting her rifle forbiddingly while her pale magenta eyes darted across the snow. The leader of the Turks then turned to Red, pointing the other way. Red's voice was a little more audible; his was a voice built to carry, no matter what he tried to do with it.

"Certainly. But we ought to stay together, surely? They've proven they can take us, one on one."

Reno's voice was a little louder and filled with brash confidence when he answered. "Yeah, but we're not here to fight them. Our job's to give warning. Elena and Rude'll slow 'em down... and then, they're all your friends' problem. It'll be a nice change of pace for you, being a bodyguard instead of a warrior."

Red shook his head, but padded off around the corner without another word. Reno grinned toothily, gave Lana a little wave, and headed off in the opposite direction around the small house.

Ryyu watched them carefully for two full rotations, then dismissed them. It would be easy to enter from this side, at a certain point in their rounds. Pointless. She turned to Laurent.

"I'm going in through the windows." She said calmly. "You will charge directly for the woman on the door." He started to nod, but she cut him off. "Laurent. You cannot fight on your own, in that condition. If you find yourself at a disadvantage, do not hesitate to run."

His eyebrows began to knit. "Listen, dragonlady--"

She silenced him again with a swiftly raised hand and a dangerous golden scowl; his eyes darted back and forth uncertainly before he registered that the movement had been hers. "Do not argue. You can barely see where you're going. That is why I am aiming you at the woman in _red_. Once I am in, you may flee. I, unlike yourself, am able to take care of myself."

Laurent stared at her with pupil-less eyes. Ryyu squashed the shiver of repulsion that ran through her, and focused on the patrolling Turk as he rounded the corner of the building again, green eyes narrowed suspiciously at innocent scenery.

"Go."

* * *

For such a tiny little building, Gast's place sure seemed to house more than its fair share of books. Medical journals, thick tomes on cultures, myths, and varying strands of science, thin, worn scrapbooks filled with scribbled theories - some of which, Yuffie thought, eyeing one margin, were clearly written at three in the morning. All the many people who respected Gast's genius had never seen notes like these. She really ought to take a few down to Cosmo Canyon and re-educate them.

She glanced to her left and was surprised to see Sephiroth, reading with almost ferocious (if heavily veiled) enthusiasm, as though he was committing every line to memory.

He'd stepped into the tiny living space like most people would step into a church, and had spent precious moments just taking the small room in, while the rest of the group dispersed to begin their reading. He'd peered at bedtime reading, still stacked beside the bed, and given way to a soft, sad smile as Aeris approached to tug on his arm.

"That was his favourite book," he murmured. "He mentioned it in passing, almost every literature-related conversation we had. He liked the simplicity and naiveté of the narrative. And the pictures."

A gloved hand descended from on high to pluck the book from the ground, and gently dust its cover. Sephiroth flipped it open to the first page, and Aeris, peeking over his shoulder, let out an appreciative gasp at the lovingly scribed and illustrated pages. Sephiroth seemed to recall their purpose, and shut the book with a snap. He handed it carefully to Aeris, and glanced at Cloud.

"I would like to read," he said simply. Cloud stared hard at him for a few seconds, and shrugged with barely a frown.

"You react faster than most of us, anyway," was the equally simple reply. Yuffie supposed she wouldn't argue with a sword like that, either.

She replaced the exercise book she'd been browsing, and heaved the next item, a heavy black binder, from the shelf. It hit the floor (and her toes) with a resounding thud, and everyone in the room looked at her. She ignored them in favour of thinking every curse she knew in her head in backwards-alphabetical order, and sat down to leaf through the binder.

About three pages in, she was having difficulty breathing.

"Hey!" She called falteringly. "Listen to this - 'Subject: Specimen R, Materia: Ramuh (C-4), Location: Cosmo Canyon...'" She flipped back a few pages to be sure and then continued excitedly, "I have original specimen reports! Race, date of birth, blood type, hair col--"

There was a sound like a small rocket from above, and a wave of heat rippled down the staircase, pushing AVALANCHE backwards as shots erupted from the ground floor. Masamune seemed to go from Sephiroth's hip to his shoulder without any intervening steps; the Outsider was cocked and held to the ceiling as the pale gunman stared expectantly at the staircase.

There was a sound like shattering glass. Elena let out a scream, cut short, and then the Bahamut-Imbued landed at the bottom of the stairs in a crouch, gold eyes wide and slit-pupilled.

Vincent levelled the Outsider at her and in less than a heartbeat had fired thrice, but the dragon had seen the attack coming; she dodged to her left, almost directly into Tifa. The brunette raised her forearms to block a few dangerously fast swipes, throwing up the folder she had been holding instead when she saw the wickedly sharp knuckleduster on the Imbued's right hand. The weapon tore through it, scattering papers left and right, even as the black-clad Wutaian pulled back to a slightly more respectable distance and took a bare glance at her surroundings before she fixed on her next target.

In that split-second, Barret flicked his safety and emptied a clip at the woman; the Bahamut-Imbued staggered as two lucky bullets ripped through her shin. Still, she was already in motion, leaping toward a wide-eyed Aeris with her glittering weapon raised--

_CLANG!_

Masamune sliced clear through the weaker steel of the knuckleduster, sending the pointed tips spinning through the air. Sephiroth's lip curled as the Bahamut-Imbued slipped under his sword arm - and then, at once fluid and abrupt, he changed direction entirely and slammed the hilt of his sword into the dragon's ribcage. The Bahamut-Imbued let out a strangled sound and dropped to the ground. One hand went to the floor to hold her weight as she tried once again to surge to her feet, but with another flash of silver through the air, Masamune was buried six inches into the hardwood floor - _through _the bones of the Bahamut-Imbued's fragile-looking wrist.

The Wutaian screamed, blue fire flickering behind her lips. Sephiroth backed up a pace, calm but wary, his hand remaining on the Masamune's hilt.

From the stairs, Rude raised a charred, sweating hand, his handgun trained on the Bahamut-Imbued's head. Behind him, Elena limped, her own gun held in a trembling teacup grip. Reno supported a half-conscious Lana as they moved together down the stairs.

Bahamut's scream was choked-off along with the dangerous blue light when the muzzle of the Outsider was pressed almost casually into her neck. The dragon looked up at Vincent. Liquid gold met bloody crimson, glowing with the promise of violence.

The Bahamut-Imbued dropped her head back, exhaling once, shuddering, as the power seeped from her veins. This battle was over.

* * *

A/N: Erk. Battle scenes again. There have been a lot of mistakes in this lately, because I write it so haphazardly. I feel like Kouta Hirano, explaining away Anderson's fourth-dimensional bayonet-holding capabilities. One day when this is finished, I'll go back and fix everything. I'm one of those people who has to forge ahead, and then go back and fix up details. (Of course, by the time I'm done fixing the details, the end result is quite different.)

I'm glad everyone is feeling so sympathetic towards Laurent. He's changed quite dramatically these last few chapters. (Not to me, but in what I get to show.) He's always been one of my favourites. :)

**JML** - Actually, I'm picking up AC first. You don't think I can hold out the extra months just to see Vincent in his own game first, do you? ;D As to Shimusou-san... well, you'll find out next chapter. I went kanji-hunting; so should you.

**SelenityShiroi, Wrath-Oathkeeper, YinYangDarkLight** - :Jedi hand-wave: That was not the Death Penalty. That was the Outsider. ;D Thanks for pointing that out, guys. It nearly happened again in this chapter, but I was prepared!

**Demeter1** - Thankyou for reminding me about the fact that there are in fact things that need to happen between the end of a battle and the beginning of a next one. Somehow, my notes skipped straight over the recovery phase. :sigh:

**YinYangDarkLight** - I like to make my bad guys believable. That means everyone gets a point of view.

**Seventhe** - I'm not sure it's Vincent controlling Chaos so much as Chaos working with Vincent towards a similar goal, now that I think of it... but you're right. There's never a scene, anywhere, where Vincent goes bugfuck and tries to kill a member of his team due to his demons. That's all Cloud's arena. ;D Glad you liked the style; I wish I could hold onto it for more than half an hour at a time. XD

**Y. Leonhart** - :tears up: You... you're comparing this with SiW:weeps with happiness: That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said. :sniffle: Have... have a mastered Knights of the Round materia! Yuffie's a bit of an interesting character as far as her mother's death goes, but as far as she's concerned... they were in a war. They were fighting each other. And besides, she totally pasted him and his mama in the Crater. The Yuffie in my head seems to think that's an eye for an eye. ;D

**Sorelliena** - Length is a difficult question, but I'd say fifteen more chapters at the outside. It'll probably peter out somewhere in the late forties. My money's on 47, but I have nothing with which to back that up. XD;

**Phoenixfeather4** - Sometimes my fingers do retarded things and type a homonym rather than the word I'm looking for. If you do notice errors like that, please feel free to point them out specifically - I hate it when it happens. I'll try to post translations, but I just keep thinking these notes are so long already... oh well! As my public demands! ;D

No promises about the next chapter, as FFVII:AC has consumed my soul, but I am sorry it took so long. Thank you all for your continued support.


	37. Dragon's Tongue

Disclaimer: Don't own, except what I do. Kindly keep your thievin' Yuffiehands to yourself.

A/N: I almost had to string Ryyu up and cut along her ribs before she decided to cooperate with me on this one. THANK LEVIATHAN SHE MADE A CHOICE, is all I can say. Thanks for your patience. Enjoy the show. Oh, and happy Hallowe'en, I guess.

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter 37 - Dragon's Tongue

The cold press of a gun against her throat made Ryyu freeze immediately, the power she had been gathering dissipating at once. From the corner of her eye she could see Rude on the staircase, gun trained on her professionally. He barely twitched as Elena staggered down the stairs after him, looking charred but generally healthy. She, too, raised her gun, though her hands trembled slightly with exertion.

"The Phoenix-Imbued ran for it," she reported, as Reno entered, dragging a semi-conscious Lana. The redhead snorted.

"I say we let him run. We have everything we need to end this little feud." He glared at Ryyu, who was not quite able to stifle a laugh. The pressure of the Outsider on her jugular increased slightly in warning, but Ryyu was unfazed.

"Ahh, human arrogance. It never ceases to amaze." Her tone was utterly relaxed, coloured slightly with amusement. She was pleased to see that it gave them all pause; every hand in the room twitched closer to an undrawn weapon - except, of course, for the young Cetra. Ryyu's eyes passed over her, narrowing as the young woman swallowed and stood straight and determined, and glittered with glee.

Sephiroth jerked Masamune slightly to one side, causing a sharper burst of agony to shoot up her arm. She glared at him, then down at her wrist, impressed despite the red haze of pain. She would be unable to use that hand for some time - if at all. And she would be unable to block with that arm without considerable pain to herself. The General's reputation in tactical expertise was obviously well-earned. She glanced up at them again.

"I was quite serious. Do you think I am here because I am unable to escape you?" She couldn't help the quirk to her lips. "I _orchestrated_ this. I am _defecting_."

Cloud's eyes narrowed. "Are you," he asked, obviously unconvinced.

Ryyu's expression was bland as she replied, "I am. You cannot tell me that even _you_ believe you could defeat me so easily. After Midgar, I'd assume you knew better."

Cloud's face remained stony. "Why should we believe you?"

"You are aware, are you not, that the powder I used in Midgar is a kind of drug?" From behind Cloud, Yuffie nodded slightly to indicate her understanding, though she did not look impressed. "It has long been used by Wutaian visionseekers, to loosen their mind's hold on the world that we know, and allow them access to... others. In short, it enhances what you would call psychic ability."

Cloud frowned, though he relaxed not one iota. "It lets you read minds."

Ryyu tilted her free hand in a so-so motion. "It gives me access to minds. Yours, in fact. The interesting thing about the gates of the mind is, once they are open, they are very difficult for normal people to close."

She turned her head slightly to look at Barret, the gold of her irises running over to fill her pupils as well. Barret let out a startled sound as his gun arm spontaneously sent out a short volley of bullets to pepper Gast's floor. Sephiroth turned just long enough to give the man a dirty look before his attention was focused upon Ryyu again.

From the staircase, Red XIII coughed. "If that was supposed to be convincing..." He trailed off, politely leaving the rest of the sentence unsaid. Barret's shoulders tensed at the gentle ribbing, but he said nothing against it.

Ryyu snorted. "You would not know, Nanaki, since you have never inquired as to the mechanics of that arm, but ordinarily it requires certain muscles to be tensed, and also Barret's other hand on the trigger," she said, sounding disgusted. "But if that was not convincing enough for you, then I will have to use someone else as proof."

Her eyes lit upon Rude, and she smiled as her eyes glazed over, filtering slowly through the layers of his mind. Thought and memory were strange playgrounds, to be sure, but Ryyu was the Dragon. Bahamut knew _precisely_ what She was doing.

_just shut up shut up shut up go away shut up I can't I don't I won't want this go away leave me alone stop shouting shut up can't take it stop it stop it stop it shut up SHUT UP SHUT UP--_

Ryyu's smile widened.

"You," she said, referring to Rude. His eyes were hidden to the rest, behind his glasses, but her dragonseyes cut through them, as though she flew over the glassy ocean, searching for sea mammals in its depths. "You told Reno never to ask about your family, but that was before Elena's time. Tseng knew. Reno had to suspect something. But little Elena never had a clue, did she?"

Elena's lips pursed. "What the hell are you--!"

Rude's eyebrows came together so fast and hard, it was a wonder they didn't rebound. "Stop talking," he said quietly. "Or I'll shoot you."

It was an empty threat; she was telling the truth and they _needed_ her. "Oho, quite the _rude_ one, aren't you? But I don't think you're quite convinced... no, I don't think I can stop just yet." She gave a glittering smile, a smile of knives and needles directed at the furious face of Elena. "You see, he's not quite as gentle as he seems, Elena..."

"I'm warning you," Rude seethed. "One last time. Shut up."

Ryyu's eyes glowed golden, her voice oddly resonant as she hissed, "I'd like to see you _try_ to fire that gun."

Rude's face formed slowly into a snarl, all of AVALANCHE watching as his fingers, one by one, uncurled. The handgun clattered to the floor beside the staircase. Ryyu continued in the silence that followed.

"Rude was only sixteen when he joined the Turks. He's plate born, did he tell you? Imagine the surprise to Tseng, leader of the Turks, when he heard that a little _plate boy_ had murdered his entire family..." Stillness and silence filled the room.

Elena flung her arm down to her side. "Shut up, you hag!" She tried to scream, though her voice was more a whisper. "Just shut up! Rude would never-- Rude would--" Tears were forming in her eyes as she turned to him. "--w-would you--?"

Rude's eyes were invisible to them, though the angle of his shoulders more than signified defeat. His voice, when it finally came, was low and grieving.

"...I just wanted them to be quiet."

At an irritated growl from above them on the staircase, Ryyu turned her eyes to the leader of the Turks. His mako eyes seemed to glow even more fiercely with his rage. "Well," he said quietly. "Now that you've fucked up the most important aspect of my team, why don't you go ahead and tell us why the fuck you're here?"

* * *

Vincent found himself strangely detached, watching his hand with all its fingers carefully coiled so as to put a bullet through the Bahamut-Imbued's throat as fast as humanly possible. Chaos, too, was alert - but it did not burn through his blood the way it usually did. It seemed more interested in proceedings than in escaping the cage of his body. Vincent wondered what that was supposed to mean.

The Imbued did not seem inclined to follow Reno's thinly veiled demand immediately, though, raising her chin ever so slightly as she said, "I would appreciate my hand back, first." In anyone else, it might have been a reasonable request, but the group had seen exactly what she was capable of with those hands. Cloud shook his head firmly.

"Not a chance. Unless you can control Sephiroth and Vincent." The words were a challenge, and even as the woman's eyes flashed, she was forced to grit her teeth.

"I cannot," she admitted. Bare seconds later, she grasped the blade of the Masamune with her unhurt hand and pulled at it experimentally. Naturally, it did not budge - and would not have, even had Sephiroth's hand been at his side instead of on its hilt. The attempt hurt her right hand, and cut her left. She curled her legs under her, Wutaian-style, and bent forward slightly so as not to put too much strain on her bleeding wrist.

There was a moment of silence, and she said with some annoyance, "Perhaps this would work more effectively if you were to ask questions?"

Cloud pinched the bridge of his nose. "Firstly - Barret, Red, Tifa. The last thing we need's a sneak attack during an interrogation. Head upstairs and keep watch."

Tifa's lips pursed, as though considering arguing her right to stay. But she nodded and flexed her hands in her gloves. "Come on, Barret." She set off up the stairs, trying not to aggravate any of the Turks. She wasn't sure _what_ they'd do, if she touched Rude's shoulder or squeezed Elena's hand... Aeris was much better at that sort of thing. She glanced down at the flower girl, still hovering behind Sephiroth, and flicked her fingers at Red. The lion like creature butted his head against Elena's knee with a rumbling purr, and bounded up the stairs after Tifa.

Vincent listened to them go, not blinking, not looking away from the Bahamut-Imbued. Cloud stood quiet for a few moments, gathering his thoughts, and finally said, "What is this about?"

The Bahamut-Imbued smirked, apparently having anticipated this. "A broad question deserves a broad answer. 'This' is about the fate of the Planet."

Vincent flicked the tip of Outsider more strongly into her jaw, and she narrowed her eyes at him. He continued, unfazed. "Answer in detail," he told her coolly. "Or you are no use to us at all."

Her expression told him she was unimpressed with his dramatics. She straightened as much as she was able without causing more damage to her hand. "Very well. I suppose I shall have to start from the very beginning...

"As you are already aware, the Imbued were one of the earlier efforts of Professor Gast. His aim was to enhance human performance using the knowledge of the Cetra, as contained in materia. it was this research that led to the mako showering used in SOLDIER and, years later, the Jenova Project."

Her smile seemed to widen at the tension that slunk across Sephiroth's frame at those words. Cloud narrowed his eyes. "But you're not the same as SOLDIERs. Are you?"

"No, not at all." Surely that smile was poisonous? "Although I confess, I do not know the full extent of the procedure, it has been... determined that SOLDIERs only underwent the barest minimum. You see, SOLDIER members are enhanced through mere contact with the refined mako energy; for us, it was far more extreme. The Imbued were injected with it, _bathed_ in it, so that mako became our lifeblood as much as the Planet's. And on top of this, of course, there was the application of materia."

Cid sucked at the inside of his cheek, fiddling with an empty pack of cigarettes. "How does that work?"

The Dragon shrugged, as though she thought the _how_ was unimportant. "In this case, it seems that - because the bloodstream is a closed system - the body acts similarly to a materia orb; containing and acting as a vessel for the essence caught in the materia itself."

"But not all of them worked." Vincent affirmed. "There was no perfect system."

"No. In the case of most materia classes - support, independent, magic and command - all the 'essence' that a materia contained was merely knowledge of how to interact with the Planet to bring about a desired result - fire, or a quick burst of healing." She gestured to Cloud. "But you should all know, you cannot fill a human up with knowledge. They simply have no way to deal with such a thing."

Aeris clasped her hands. "So what happened to them?" She burst out, green eyes glimmering softly with empathy. Bahamut paused to smirk at her.

"It was all before my time, of course, but mostly they went mad. Tormented by voices they couldn't understand, knowledge overloading their systems until they died - crystallised."

There was a moment where Vincent and Sephiroth stared at her, neither entirely wishing to speak. To their silent, ignorable relief, Yuffie's voice raised itself from the back wall. "Like Staniv."

"That's right. Like Typhon."

Cloud shook his head. "You said 'most classes'... not Summons?"

The older Wutaian tapped the side of her nose, and chuckled. It would be hard to believe, Vincent mused, that there was a gun at her throat and a sword through her wrist, were his own fingers not wrapped around the butt of the former. "Summons are _more_ than knowledge. They are the essence of the Planet's children; the very beings of the Lord of Fire and the Lady of Ice are contained in the materia that bear their names."

Cloud gave the floor, and then Sephiroth, a long look. "...so your legend was true, Sephiroth." The silver haired man shook his head once, not in denial, but consideration. "And you're trying to... what, free the Summons? If the Cetra imprisoned them--" His eyes flashed. "Are you after Aeris?"

The Dragon's expression sobered. "The original purpose of the Imbued was the will of the Titan," she recited. "That the Children of the Planet should walk free, unfettered by the Cetra's protective measures for their weaker, less worthy descendants." Her eyes were cold, reflective, and obscured a myriad of truths - like the cheap wraparound sunglasses they sold in Costa del Sol. "But..." And then, they softened. She looked down to hide it.

"But we are none of us scientists. The process that lead to the few successful Imbued is now impossible to replicate. And with only our small sample of the Planet's children able to be freed--"

It was only a brief silence, but on it, the Planet's fate seemed to teeter precariously.

"I am... concerned... for the Planet's fate, should the remnants of her offspring be unleashed, as we had planned."

It took perhaps two seconds for Reno to gather himself a healthy head of frustrated, bewildered rage. "That's bullshit. What sort of shit is that, _you're concerned?_ What the fuck are you _concerned_ about?"

The Bahamut-Imbued's head snapped upward and she stared at him with predatory intent. "If you had not been so steadily drinking yourself into oblivion on the night Leviathan died, you may have noticed the rain - which _began_ building the moment the Water God was released from its materia, and fell at the very instant Leviathan escaped the prison of Kisaragi Godo's body." She tilted her head slightly and curled her lip at him. "Are you following, or is your stupid white-man head still full of air?"

Reno looked as though he was ready to explode. "_What the shit--?_"

Again, Yuffie's voice sounded; so flat, it brought Reno's irritation crashing down alongside it. "I understand. She's right. Given time, Leviathan will drown the world." The ninja stood, folder still held in her arms. "She's talking about balance."

Almost, Vincent could have sworn, the Dragon looked impressed. "**E's kmyt mejehk ysuhk draca vuumc ryc hud timmat ouin fadc, Kisaragi.**" Yuffie glowered, but did not respond. Vincent felt a hint of pride in her for that.

"So you're telling us this because you don't want to release the Summons straight onto the Planet any more," Aeris summarised. "It'll hurt the Planet. And... we have to put the Summons back into the materia, right?"

"Just killing the Imbued won't be enough," Elena spoke up for the first time, her voice a little watery, but determined. "That just releases the Summon into the surrounding atmosphere. We have to find some way to seal them, like Feather did to Shiva."

The tattooed woman looked startled and a little concerned to have been brought into the center of the conversation. She clutched at Reeve, who said, "But she doesn't know how she did it - and we're pretty sure she can only deal with Shiva, anyway. So should we try to find other - ah - Summon-talkers?"

(Cid hung his head and turned to Cait Sith. "All right," he said quietly, as though in concession to a previous argument. "We'll just never let him name anything." To which Cait responded with a swipe of his megaphone and a hissed threat of Comet2 at a later date.)

Cloud made no motion either way, turning back to the Dragon with an intense expression on his face. "How many of you are there?" He asked. "How many Summons have to be 'sealed'?"

The Dragon looked almost amused. "I suppose they never taught you mathematics in SOLDIER failure school?" She commented swiftly, before moving on. Cloud's eyes bored fatal-error-blue holes in her as she spoke. "I have been Imbued with the spirit of the Bahamut - NeoBahamut, to be specific. Previously with me were the Titan-Imbued, and the Phoenix-Imbued."

"Just three of you?" Cid demanded. "What about that Choco-girl and her sister?"

The Bahamut-Imbued shrugged slim shoulders. "They're dead, and the Choco/Mog released into the world along with Leviathan." She said blandly, completely unaffected. "As for the rest, they are..." She hesitated. "They do not appear to be, as you say, 'loose', but..."

Sephiroth twitched the Masamune, and the woman let out an involuntary gasp of pain. "Don't dither," he ordered coldly. "Give an informed opinion, if you have no real information to offer us."

The Dragon looked as though she might like to fry him where he stood. "It is my opinion that, as the Summons were not 'invoked' at the time of their vessels' demise, they were sealed in the crystallised corpses," she ground out fiercely.

"They haven't caused trouble, wherever they are, so we don't need to worry about them immediately," Cloud decided. "That leaves us with Leviathan, Titan, Phoenix and how to get the NeoBahamut out of you." He nodded to the Bahamut-Imbued, who smiled.

"Don't forget the members of your party, Strife," she purred. "It would be unfortunate for the mighty AVALANCHE to inadvertently cause the Planet's downfall."

Aeris stared. "What are you talking about?"

The Dragon's eyes gleamed maliciously. "Why, Sephiroth, of course."

A fine trembling ran through Masamune, shuddering into her bones and making fire spring up in her veins. Vincent could barely detect it, but he looked up at the swordsman, his disapproval evident in his expression. "Control yourself," was the silent message. Sephiroth did not appear to hear it. His hand dropped from the sword to his side, and although he did not step back at all, it was plain the Imbued's words disturbed him.

"The Jenova Project, the quest for the ultimate SOLDIER, was set into motion because of the discovery of what Gast believed to be a Cetra. However, its seeds were in the first Imbuing, when Odin was found strangely resistant to the process." The Dragon's voice was smooth and even, if a little smug. "Sephiroth had, from the day of his birth, been bathed in and injected with as much of the original Odin-fount mako as possible, in order to make him more receptive to the process. But Professor Hojo didn't know all this – Gast was easily distracted – so the project never came to full fruition."

"You're saying he's not as powerful as he could have been," Cloud muttered. "Sweet Holy... but that was members, plural. Who else are you talking about?"

The Bahamut-Imbued gave him a look of deepest disdain. "You truly are simple creatures... I am the Dragon... I can control mortals with the barest stretch of my power, yet you cannot even make the leap that the _two that I cannot control_—" She was choked off as the Outsider suddenly pressed more forcefully into her jugular.

Vincent found his own hand trembling. "You cannot mean me."

"Oh, but I _do_," the Bahamut-Imbued seethed. "Your procedure may have stripped every memory from your bones; Da Cha O may command it, but I can never forget that it was _your_ fault I was taken from the first. _You_ are Imbued, Shimusou Vincent, Valentine."

In his chest there was a gaping absence of emotion, a strange, echoing calm that he knew would merely be the silence before the storm. Chaos waited there, in the eye, and he would not go toward it.

"You must be mistaken," he murmured, and he sounded choked. "Chaos is no_ god_...!"

And from behind him, a thump, the sound of flipping pages. Yuffie dropped to her knees, skimming through the records she had found, eyes darting frantically over the dry, worn paper.

The second the shock appeared in her eyes, his heart coated itself with his own special brand of lead, and sank deep, deep into his boots.

Yuffie's voice was faint and breathy as she read, "S-subject: Specimen D; Materia: Da Cha O/The Chaos (P-M); Location: Wutai; Birth Name: ..." She faltered and placed the folder on her knees; a small, blurred photograph of a solemn little boy in a yukata skittered out onto the floor. "Shimusou, Vincent."

* * *

A/N: I'm doing NaNoWriMo in November, so if there's a chapter 38 before December it will be fuelled by writer's block in other things, and will be _terrible and very badly written_. So sorry for the inconvenience.

**JML** - Yes, I do know how many different kanji you can get for 'shimusou' - I had to work through them to get to the name, after all. My final conclusions were posted in my LJ on 1 August. "shimusou" was intended to be written "ordered vision" with the additional connotation of "death unparalleled". Incidentally, I decided "uinsento" would be written, "a guardian concealed a thousand times", otherwise known as the guardian with a thousand faces… guess who! ;D My thanks for your dedication, though:presents JML with coffee, cookies, and a tranquiliser: Just the one, though - don't want your next review to be, "...whut?"

**Tank, Artikgato and everyone else who noticed**- Nope, Ultima Weapon's still okay - Phoenix just overheated it for a minute so he couldn't hold it in his hands. It's possible I forgot to mention that someone picked it up again, though.

**Hoheehum** - The real Cait Sith, as in the little kitty whom I shamelessly filched from the crew over at BishInk, and give full credit for the creation thereof... was being cared for by Lana, until Reno got drunk and slept over. He was allergic to cats and she was going away with everyone, so she foisted the kitty on her neighbour. Reeve'll get him back when the story's over and done with.

**Matar** – Actually, I think the Cerberus is a stupid gun. I can't quite say why, except perhaps that three barrels seems a little excessive. And that it seems to act as a jet pack, which is _the silliest thing I have ever seen, ever._ I don't mean to sound harsh, but I just... I'm really excited about DC, and dreading it at the same time. XD


	38. Snake Eyes

Disclaimer: FFVII belongs to Square-Enix; everything else is mine.

A/N: It's been forever since I last updated! I'm sorry! But I wrote 50 082 words of a novel in the meantime and prevented myself from drowning in _Petshop of Horrors_ again! So really, we're doing okay!

**Faith and Feather**

Chapter 38: Snake Eyes

Ryyu shifted uncomfortably as her bare shoulder touched cold porcelain. Yuffie and Sephiroth had bound her carefully, legs crossed and wrapped at the ankles, wrists to opposite elbow, knots small and tight and impossible for her to touch or see; the Kisaragi girl had obviously been trained from early childhood, though she may not necessarily have known it at the time. There had barely been a pause between the testing of the final knot and hauling Ryyu to her feet, marching her faux-casually back to the inn... and throwing her into the bathtub. Empty, fortunately. Sephiroth was not needlessly cruel.

Though it seemed a slightly ridiculous place to be held captive, it had been a good idea. Her light, slippery clothing gave her almost no purchase against the porcelain, especially with her hands behind her back. She could not even push off the opposite end to get to her feet; her legs weren't long enough. A very good idea. Ryyu held in a smile. She doubted the General would like that she enjoyed his efficiency more than she feared his technique.

He was standing about six feet from her, between the towel rack and the closed door. The expression on his face bespoke both seriousness and serious boredom. In that, at least, they were matched - there was nothing to do but wait until AVALANCHE decided what to do with her, nothing to concentrate on but try to keep her weight off her injured wrist. The dragon shifted sullenly inside her mind; it did not appreciate being held on any sort of tether.

Lana, too, was fidgeting slightly, leaning and trying not to lean upon the basin. Her clothing still looked a little worse for wear, but she appeared in perfect health. It was unsurprising to Ryyu, but the black woman seemed unsettled by the lack of wounds. Usually, Ryyu could simply have chosen to ignore her, but being bound and gagged as she was, with a restless dragon pacing out the length and breadth of her mind, doing so was increasingly difficult.

A welcome distraction came in a soft knock on the door, and low conversation filtered into the room for the few seconds that Aeris held the door open, a small tray held in her hands. She smiled at Lana, then at Sephiroth, her gaze skittering from Ryyu's forehead to her nose without actually meeting her eyes. "No verdict yet," she offered softly. "But Tifa thought you might be getting hungry."

Lana grinned at the shorter woman, nodding her thanks as Aeris handed one of the plates to her. Sandwiches. Ryyu frowned slightly. There were three of them. Despite a metabolism no doubt heightened by mako, she doubted that Sephiroth would eat two of them at once... meaning that one of them had to have been made for her. Ryyu's deduction was proved correct when Aeris offered a second sandwich to Sephiroth, and then knelt beside the bath tub.

"Are you hungry?" She asked, green eyes smiling warily. "I'll hold it for you."

Ryyu thought about the sandwich, and thought about eating out of the Cetra's hands, and shook her head with slow dignity. No matter how long it was before they next chose to feed her, she knew that she would refuse to accept the food until she had no other choice. Her pride and the dragon's gave her no other option. Aeris shrugged, and grabbed a sandwich half for herself, scooting backwards across the floor until she hit the medicine cabinet, tucking her legs carefully down beside her; Ryyu rested her head on the edge of the bathtub and closed her eyes to screen out visual distractions.

Lana spoke around her sandwich. "How's Rude doing?" Aeris made a small noise of dissent in her throat as she swallowed her own mouthful.

"Not so good. But he has Reno and Elena with him. Cid and Red are keeping an eye on Vincent." She tried for a laugh. "I don't smell smoke yet, so we must be doing okay!" An uneasy silence fell, in which Ryyu tried to focus on the conversation outside, to little avail. Once, she thought she head Tifa's voice raised in something approaching anger, but the words were muffled by the thick wood of the door. "What's wrong? Aren't you hungry?"

The dragon opened her eyes to see that this query was directed at Sephiroth, who had not touched his sandwich. The General gestured to Lana. "She is eating. I do not want both our hands full, should the Bahamut-Imbued make a move." Lana looked almost embarrassed, and started to eat faster. Sephiroth waved a hand. "Take your time. I don't want you to choke, either."

Aeris laughed, wrapping her arms around her legs and tugging them up to her chest. "I'll hold yours for you, if you like," she teased, and Ryyu was intrigued to see a hint of resignation in Sephiroth's eyes. "_Mister_ Gainsborough," Aeris added, immediately bringing one hand to her mouth to stifle a giggle at the expression that resolutely _did not_ appear on his face. He picked up his sandwich with one hand, shifting subtly so that Masamune would still be brought easily to bear should Ryyu become threatening.

But Ryyu had closed her eyes and sunk down against the edge of the bathtub again. She wasn't interested in being threatening at all.

- - -

It was dark in the large, subterranean bar hidden away beneath the Icicle Inn, almost disconcertingly so. For the first few steps, Yuffie always felt as though she was treading inky blackness, sparsely decorated with neon and firelight. But then the majority of her vision would return, and the underground pub became one large cosy nook, comfortable and companionable - and warm, which was the main thing this far north.

As such, it was nearly always full, though people were normally content to nurse their drinks in quiet contentment rather than becoming the noisy rabble you'd have found in Gold Saucer or Costa del Sol. It wasn't one of _her_ favourite places - it was much easier to pick pockets when people were carousing and singing and having a violently _loud_ good time - but she could see how it might have suited Vincent. It was an easy place to become lost in, quiet anonymity closing inexorably over all, until she almost didn't notice Cid or Red XIII until she nearly trod upon the tail of the latter.

Nanaki was perched upon a barstool. It was very becoming, Yuffie thought. "I can think of so many Mister Ed jokes right now," she said with a grin as she slung an arm around Cid's shoulders. The pilot looked up with a slightly surprised expression, and offered a slightly subdued, but nonetheless roguish grin of his own.

"Hey, kid. How's it going?"

"I'll tell you if you give me some of whatever it is you're--" she caught a glimpse of his tumbler and made a face. "Cid Highwind, I am _so ashamed_ of you right now."

"Can't irritate m' throat," the pilot responded as primly as he was able, and Yuffie coughed _whipped_ in a highly discreet manner.

"You're not even trying to get Red drunk!" She added, sounding mortified. Nanaki gave her a dignified look.

"We do have other things to concentrate upon, Yuffie," he admonished her gently, like she didn't already _know_ that, and his tail flicked out in a certain direction. Yuffie followed his cue and, in the dimness of the pub, could just make out the sad, slouched figure of Vincent Valentine, pumping out his own extra-thick brand of Gloom in one of the booths toward the back. Not even the drunks were bothering him. Yuffie grimaced.

"Wow, that looks promising," she muttered to Cid, who nodded morosely.

"Turks're worse," he said, jerking his head. Yuffie blinked - she'd almost forgotten about them - and spared a glance in that direction, too. Judging by the collection of shot glass pillars at Rude's elbow, the bald Turk was planning to drink himself slowly into oblivion. Elena swayed a little, propped against the bar on the stool to his right. By comparison, Reno, sitting on his other side, looked stone-cold sober and angry about it as he sat with one hand curled around a cheap Midgarian beer. Yuffie whistled lowly.

"Gotta hand it to her - she's not_ half_ a bitch."

Cid laughed, coughed, and then wheezed a bit. "Got that right, kid. What's the plan?"

Yuffie slipped to his other side so she could run her hands through Red's mane, much to the feline's annoyance. "We're taking her to Wutai."

Cid's head snapped toward her; Nanaki's shoulders tensed even under her scratching hands. "You sure about that, kiddo?" He was rewarded for his concern with a punch in the shoulder.

"Like I told Tifa n' Cloud," she said with a tone of greatly exaggerated patience. "No one questions Lady Wutai on her own turf. Treason, y'know. I could dance round naked with your _super-girly dancing moogle umbrella_--"

"That was from Reeve!" Cid protested uselessly.

"--and nobody could legally say a thing against me. I mean, technically I could've killed the Shirakawa family about _twelve times_ by now." She glanced back at Vincent with a frown. "Besides, we're not going to know if she's telling the truth without talking to a few of the elders. Roko. Gen. Maybe Asako."

Her gaze was riveted to the tip of Vincent's iron-toed boot as it twitched in response to some inner diatribe.

"I'm going to go talk to him."

Cid looked as though he was going to protest, but when she glanced back at him more fully, his jaw was clamped determinedly shut. He offered her his glass of water; she stole the lemon and squeezed it over Red's shoulders. "Can't stop you," Cid muttered, as Nanaki complained lowly about the difference between _lemon_ and _lemony fresh_, and drained his glass. "Careful what you say, though." Something seemed to occur to him, and the ghost of a grin passed over his face. "And no kissy stuff, either, y'hear?"

"But my body's my best tool for distracting mopey vampires!" She complained, and Cid guffawed.

"Ain't you screwed, then?" He joked. She punched him in the shoulder again. "Ow!"

"Send me over a cocktail," she told him. "I want at least three colours and a little paper umbrella." She offered one last wink before she sauntered across the bar, (barely avoiding being groped; this village really wasn't as sleepy as it pretended to be) and slid into the seat facing Vincent's.

"Hey, monster man. How you doing?"

The way his eyes focused on her was reluctant, and she felt her own expression sink a little at the apathy in his. "...fine, Yuffie."

"'Cause you don't really look fine," she prompted. "And it's really not good to keep all this stuff to yourself."

Vincent's foot twitched. "Thanks for your concern," he intoned dutifully. "But I do not want to talk about it."

Yuffie shrugged. No use pushing. He was like her that way - her, and all the rest of Wutai. When you wanted to push, it was a better idea to pull. "Okay. I just wanted to let you know, we're taking her back to Wutai." To her disappointment, this was met with nothing further than a nod. "Tomorrow," she added pointedly. Vincent stared at her balefully.

"Rude and Elena will not," he answered, and Yuffie scowled.

"Vinnie, I don't know if you _noticed_, since you're all balled up over here in your little ol' self, but we're - worried - about - you." She emphasised each word with a light push to the sole of his boot, resting on the table near her elbow. He glared at the contact, and retracted his feet - or tried to. She grabbed the left one and held on resolutely.

"Don't you shrink back into yourself again, monster man," she insisted of the bronze toe. "We won't even know if it's the truth or not until we go to Wutai. So - so save your moping until you can actually get a decent drink to go with it!" She said desperately, gesturing to his untouched glass of wine.

Vincent closed his eyes for the briefest of moments. "What she has said makes sense," he murmured. "My nightmares... in this light, many of them almost make sense. She is probably telling the truth."

"What does it matter, anyway?" Yuffie hissed. "Do you think we care? Because I _don't_, Vincent! _We_ don't."

Vincent's gloved hand reached out and detached hers from his boot, just before a waitress delivered a Rising Sun - a horrendous pink, orange and yellow creation with not only a little paper umbrella, but a curly straw as well. Yuffie, momentarily distracted, eyed it proudly. _That's my chain-smoking old bastard_, she thought with fierce fondness, resisting the urge to glance over her shoulder at the pilot.

Vincent's own appraisal of the cocktail was more resigned; his right hand had moved almost protectively in front of his wine, as though saving it the embarrassment of being on the same table.

"It is not a matter of you, or of AVALANCHE," he said quietly, and Yuffie very nearly stomped on the foot she had released moments earlier. "For years," he continued, "I have thought this my punishment - poetic justice. To discover otherwise is... unsettling." He stared at the tabletop as he spoke, seeming unwilling to look her in the eye. "If, as she says, Chaos is merely an imprisoned force of nature, then... there is much I do not understand about myself."

Yuffie found herself extending her feet under the table, pressing them lightly on top of his. To her surprise, and perhaps his, also, he twitched his feet briefly to return the light pressure.

"What I mean to say is..." he told the tabletop quietly, "There is no need to worry. All that this requires is more thought, and perhaps the evidence that we will find in Wutai."

For a few moments, Yuffie felt flooded - fondness and relief and _glee_, the knowledge that he wasn't getting worse, he was trying to get _better_ - it all rose up into her throat and choked her so that for a few seconds all she could do was smile wordlessly at him.

"Okay," she managed at last. "_Good._ I'm glad you're okay. Um." She leaned forward a bit, and pulled her legs back toward her, preparing to stand. "I'll leave you to it, then, huh? _I'm_ not conducive to deep thought. Drink your Rising Sun before it melts, though."

Vincent frowned. "I thought that was yours."

Yuffie rolled her eyes. "Vinnie, I wouldn't be caught _dead_ drinking that thing." She said disdainfully, and snagged his wineglass before he could utter a protest. She drained it, and made a face. "Man, that tastes awful. Lucky I saved you from it." She winked at him. "I'll catch you in the morning, monster man."

She raised a hand in farewell and made her way back to the bar, pouncing briefly on Red XIII before disappearing up the stairs.

Vincent watched her go, and lifted the Rising Sun in Cid's direction before he started drinking it. It tasted of pineapple and strawberry liqueur, and sun and warmth and freshness and it was, surprisingly, exactly what he needed.

- - -

The Titan's hands no longer moved in that gentle stirring motion across the surface of the table; they churned, they raked, nails scraping violently against the covered surface and leaving dry, powdery patches on the leather. It was late, it was more than late, and still they did not return. Though he knew it was impossible, he tried again and again to locate them the same way he could locate any other being that walked the earth, to no avail, and as the hours crawled by he grew more and more impatient - it was unlike the Dragon to draw any attack out this long, unlike the Phoenix to have the concentration span.

Something had gone wrong. He had known it hours ago, a sick, subtle twisting of his insides that made his mouth dry and his sweat cold and sour - something had gone wrong, and one way or the other he and his people would pay for the mistake.

His hands fisted suddenly on the tabletop, his mind dragged from his sweep of the north continental terrain by a strange and heavy tread on the metal walkway outside the door. Pale eyes dragged wearily upward, away from his weathered hands, to focus on the door despite the heavy darkness, and he watched with an odd triangulation of horror, resignation and relief as the spiky-haired shadow of the Phoenix-Imbued stumbled inside, dripping wet and shivering convulsively.

For the first time in... a long time, the Titan realised with surprise, he rose to his feet, earth-coloured hands reaching for the trembling, wild-eyed Phoenix with astonishing gentleness. "Phoenix," he said, voice momentarily weak and reedy with disuse. "You have returned."

Laurent's head shot up toward the sound, and the Titan was shocked to see that strong, youthful face crumple, brows dipping in anguish, mouth tugging ferociously downward as he tried and failed to stem his sudden tears. His bright blue pupils darted back and forth as he blinked frantically, and his voice was trembling as he whispered, nearly whimpered, "Titan? I can't see. I swam here, and I can't see."

He tried to move further into the room, but his legs, trembling like they were trying to withstand some sort of seismic activity, gave out on him and he sprawled gracelessly onto the cold, hard floor. Titan stared at him in dismay, rough hands reaching out to grasp the boy's shoulders and tug him closer to the table, and a waiting chair.

"Where is the Dragon?" He asked as he hauled Laurent's shivering weight into it, casting about for one of the many blankets that he normally kept for himself. The younger man grasped at the rough cloth with shaking hands, and tugged it about himself hastily, pulling his feet up onto the chair and rocking slightly in an effort to restore his warmth; the Titan could barely believe that the great Phoenix could be so close to death, and it worried him. But Laurent had not answered his question, so he asked it again: "Where is Ryyu?"

"G-g-got her," Laurent mumbled with his eyes squeezed shut, that pained expression returning to his face. "My eyes we-ent, and I... f-fighting Turks... sh'went - _she_ went - in on her own t-to... I couldn't _see, _so I... and she didn't ever _come_ and then..." He gave a great, shuddering gasp, and forced his eyes open so that he could stare blindly at the stunned and weathered face before him. "She s-said I should run if I couldn't fight. She _said_ it."

Titan looked gravely at the shattered boy before him. "What happened, when you fought the Turks, boy?" He asked wearily, already knowing the answer.

Laurent bowed his head and clenched the blanket in both his fists, his shaking beginning to subside as the flames of the Phoenix swirled back to life inside him. "The soldier... Setzer? I hit her... I hit her really badly; I couldn't judge out the corner of my eyes, and the Turk, the redhead, the way he screamed, it was - and I used my fire, I tried to, and," Desperate to get his point across, the crystalline eyes opened and stared at Titan. They truly were crystal now, the entire eyeball one bright blue-green stone. "And..."

"And your sight went during the Turk's counter-attack, and you did not want to risk killing any of them." Titan finished, lips tight, unconcerned with hiding the disapproval in his face. He sighed, and reached up a heavily marked hand to ruffle Laurent's hair, as though he was no more than an errant grandchild. And, like an errant grandchild, Laurent's shoulders bunched, and his breath came and went in shuddering gasps.

"Sorry," he wept. "I'm _sorry_. I didn't... I couldn't...!"

The Titan rubbed the crown of the Phoenix with weary resignation, and gave it a last pat before he withdrew his hand. "Truly, you are a man without enemies, Laurent."

Laurent's pale blue eyes opened, and he stared in sightless earnest, tears staining the colour of his cheeks. "You aren't angry?" He asked, relief filtering into his voice.

He could not see the sudden movement of the Titan's hand; it was too fast for him to feel the crushing pressure on his forehead. A rattling gasp, rather like the cry of some wheeling bird of prey, left his lungs, and as the Titan lifted his palm away, the lack of support sent the Phoenix forward to crash into the tabletop.

"Not at you, boy," Titan assured the lifeless body, smearing fluid and other things onto the hip of his dusty grey robe. "Not at you."


	39. Ask the Sea

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII is the property of Square-Enix. Everything else is mine.

A/N: The last chapter threw me a bit; I wasn't expecting that to happen when it did. But I think I have things sorted now, so let's see how this goes.

Chapter 39: Ask the Sea

Yuffie opened her eyes to darkness, breathing harshly, and stared for a moment at the ceiling while her eyes adjusted. What had woken her? She took a slightly deeper breath, trying to steady herself against the cold pit that had opened in her stomach, and realised that someone else was breathing with her. _Aeris._ She turned her head, saw the older woman wrap her arms suddenly about herself. She gave a violent shudder, and then her eyes opened, to fix upon Yuffie's, even in the darkness.

"What is it?" Yuffie hissed.

Aeris sat up, hands clasped to their opposite elbow, as though trying to contain herself, trying to keep out whatever it was that had woken them. "It was... something horrible," the Cetra confessed, still whispering. "Something..." She shook her head, as though to clear it. "No, someone... someone hurting."

"Vincent...?" Yuffie suggested, and almost immediately dismissed the idea. It was quiet; far too quiet for what had woken them to have anything to do with Chaos. She slithered from her bed anyway, and groped in the darkness for her discarded shorts. Halfway through zipping them, she froze.

There were footsteps in the hall.

_Too quiet._

She held up a hand to still Aeris' grudging movements, and crouched to retrieve the Conformer. Her fingers traced along its arms, the now-expected dip of the empty slot that usually held her Leviathan making her grit her teeth as she moved noiselessly toward the door. She stood to one side of the heavy wooden door, one hand on the handle, the other holding her Conformer cocked and ready. She listened. She took a deep breath.

She pulled the door open and raised the Conformer defensively, pausing as a voice in the hall hissed, "Yuffie, what are you _doing_?"

Tifa stood there in a tee shirt and boxer shorts, squinting tiredly at the ninja. Behind her, Reeve tried vainly to comfort a softly weeping Feather. Yuffie blinked and lowered her weapon.

"Sorry," she whispered. "We, uh... what's wrong with Feather?" The last thing she wanted to do right now was confess to getting all jumpy over a _bad dream_. Tifa ran a hand through her hair and half-turned to look back at the trembling woman, something between sympathy and exhaustion on her face.

"We're not quite sure. She woke up crying, and hasn't stopped."

Reeve was ruffled with sleep, but it didn't take the sympathy from his eyes, or the gentleness from the hand that rubbed ineffectually at Feather's shoulders. "I think it was a nightmare about the Phoenix-Imbued," he tried to mutter in an aside. "She knew him before, and I guess it's a bit of a shock to be going up against him..."

Feather's hands clenched abruptly, nails scraping brilliant red trails down cheeks already blotchy with tears. "The Phoenix is free," she said, in a whisper so forceful that Yuffie suspected it had started as a scream. Aeris' hand touched the ninja's elbow gently as the tattooed woman continued, "It's crying... it's _crying_. Can't you hear it?" She dissolved into tears again as Reeve tried to calm her, and keep her hands with their long nails far from the delicate flesh of her face.

Aeris, peeking over Yuffie's shoulder, cleared her throat. "I think we might all be awake for the same reason," she told them. Yuffie shifted slightly so that she could look back at Aeris' eyes. Usually they were a soft green, like a misty ocean, but now they had the harder sheen of a piece of jade. "Were you going to see Cloud?"

For a second, Tifa looked almost abashed. Then Aeris stepped into the hall and nodded to herself, went to Feather's other side to try to still the other woman's grief.

"We'll come, too," she said, and Yuffie could only shrug and fall into step behind Tifa as the martial artist led them down the hall.

- - -

The Titan was hunkered down beside the smoking remnants of the board table, frowning slightly. He had not expected that the Phoenix would try to resurrect the body that had kept it prisoner. But try it had; the boy's body had burned to ashes, taking half table with him in an eerie burst of crimson flame. And now, in the ashes, there was something moving.

He reached out a hand, and brushed ash away from the something. At his touch, it let out a weak, mewling sound, and flailed tiny limbs a little more determinedly, shaking more of the dark, clinging substance free. It coughed, and then set to wailing in earnest.

It was a baby.

Titan's brows knit. He brushed more ash from its forehead, leaning closer to observe its eyes, brightened already with the coldness of the crystal-blind. Its limbs were normal for an infant, if Titan was any judge, but its fingers were slightly too long. The nails on its feet reminded him more of claws than of anything human.

It would not survive on its own, and he had no time to coddle it.

He brought a chair down on its forehead, and scowled when the corpse once more began to smoke.

- - -

Tifa was quickly learning that the slightest hint of a smile from Ryyu could make her feel like smashing down walls. It was infuriating. Smug and calculating, as though she held all the cards and could see through the hands of her opponents.

"And you all had this nightmare?" She questioned silkily. Cloud glared at her. Despite a groggy awakening, he was bearing up surprisingly well with the application of a hastily assembled cup of inn coffee.

"Feather had a nightmare," he corrected her shortly. "Yuffie and Aeris woke up around the same time."

"We can't remember what we were dreaming," Aeris put in regretfully. "We were wondering if you had felt anything?"

Ryyu looked as though she would skirt this question, but after a moment she nodded firmly. "Yes. The Phoenix has broken free of Laurent's body, although not properly. Not _well_." She drew her brows together, and stared at them more plainly. "Are you sure that you are all that sensed his death?" She accented her words pointedly. Sephiroth shook his head when Cloud glanced at him.

"I felt nothing," he informed them calmly. "Don't be fooled. Those who did sense it, stirred. Even she was dozing, before you arrived."

Ryyu shot him a dirty look. "Perhaps you should direct your observations elsewhere," she suggested tartly. "More than four have woken from nightmares this night."

_"To wake me from the nightmare..."_

"Vincent." The name was off her tongue before she could think about it. Cloud glanced at her, and she tucked her hair behind her ear. "He might have had the dream as well," she suggested, and smiled slightly as Yuffie nodded in agreement.

"Hey, she might be right. He's been having weird dreams since the beginning of this, you know? I mean, the very beginning." She flipped the Conformer over her shoulder, stuck out her hip. Tifa grinned along with the ninja as Yuffie said, "I'll go get him. If I don't come back, he's passed out from one measly Rising Sun, and I can't haul his ass back up the stairs."

- - -

The Titan peered at the tiny, misshapen creature at his feet, and scowled. It was stubborn; he could give it that. But it had begun to annoy him.

This was the third attempt the Phoenix had made to revive the shell of its host body. The long, spindly growths at the end of its arms could no longer truthfully be called fingers. Their flesh was strange and hard, the wax-like tracery of feathers and nails on the skin covered over with a brittle, greenish exoskeleton that throbbed dully in the scant light. The legs bent as a bird's did, now, not as a human's. There was little tissue on those legs, and the toes grew longer and separate, each capped with a talon in frozen mako green.

There was still a tiny human chest to the creature, but it was a weak cawing sound that came from the ill-developed throat. The child's face had begun to stretch forward, outward, as though there was something behind his lips pushing determinedly at the skin that covered it.

The eyes, still, were blind.

Titan picked up the long-limbed, ill-formed child and dashed it violently against the edge of the table. He kicked and scuffed at the ashes on the floor, but the sad, thin form that held the Phoenix smouldered determinedly, no matter how he railed at its remains.

- - -

It was not yet dawn when the Highwind lifted into the sky, and as such, their take-off seemed even louder and more abrasive than usual. Yuffie sat opposite Ryyu in the cargo hold, jaw firmly clenched despite the lurching of her stomach. _Damned if I'll show weakness to her_, she thought poisonously, glaring so hard she thought her eyes might pop out of her skull. (How did Vincent _do_ that all the time?) _Damned if I ever let her see weakness on my face._

Ryyu, for her part, seemed completely oblivious to Yuffie's efforts. Flanked by Red and a surprisingly subdued Cait Sith, she sat wth her legs curled beneath her, apparently perfectly comfortable despite the cold of the steel floor. Her golden eyes were blank, her face a mask – who knew what she was thinking, behind a face as cold as that? It could have been anything... and what if she was concentrating on something important? Yuffie gulped down a deep breath as bile rose momentarily in her throat and scowled darkly at the other Wutaian.

"Hey," she said to get Ryyu's attention, and when the other woman's eyes remained glazed and distant, said it again, a little louder. The Bahamut-Imbued blinked, her pupils widening from vertical lines to what could have passed for normal human pupils if Yuffie hadn't watched them focus. She didn't reply, but turned her face expectantly toward Yuffie, waiting for her to continue. Yuffie found herself a little envious of the woman's poise.

"How did you know that Vincent had dreamed about this Laurent guy, too?" She asked. "If you can't get into his head like you can with the rest of us, how do you know what he was dreaming?"

Ryyu smiled that tiny, polite smile that Yuffie had only ever seen be polite and kind on her mother, and drew herself slightly straighter. _Leviathan, her manners are, like, a thousand years old..._ "Merely an educated guess, I assure you. There is no telling what lies in that man's mind." A poisonous hint to the smile, now, and Yuffie struggled to shrug the comment away.

"It'd make more sense if he'd sensed it and I hadn't," she said flatly. "Why would I dream about the Phoenix-Imbued?"

Ryyu's eyes went dull and golden once again, and she dipped her head. "I am sure that the answers you seek lie in Wutai," she said, and would speak no more. Yuffie sighed. _Why can't we hold her in the Chocobo stalls?_ She thought grumpily, though she already knew the reason. The moment any of the birds caught her scent, it was like they were standing next to the Midgar Zolom.

Or Vincent.

Nanaki, seeming to catch the drift of her thoughts, stepped forth stiff-legged to collapse on her lap. She'd spent too much time on the Highwind to try to rebuff him; the squawking only made her feel worse. She sat with his enormous, shaggy head on her knees most of the way to Wutai, and laughed when he woke above the island's southern coast to snarl at the hundreds of tiny braids that she'd peppered through his mane.

- - -

The Titan had one browned hand clamped over his mouth and nose as the other clutched the malformed infant form of the Phoenix-Imbued against his chest. The damn thing would not stop burning, respawning; there was ash all over his floor.

And now, as he stepped out into the loading bay, the child's body made steam in the air as his own did not, some inner heat sustaining it even as he dropped it in disgust on the metal grating that passed for a floor. It squealed, blind eyes crinkling slowly into an infant's expression of betrayal. What should have been easy, fluid motion was greatly hindered by the crackling, crystallized skin that had appeared all over this incarnation's body. The rough edges could almost have resembled feathers. But this child would never fly; this child would be lucky to keep breathing long, with the strain the exoskeleton was placing upon its internal processes. It was a mutation, destined to fail.

He nudged it with a booted toe, watching its feeble movements with pity. It was a shame. Laurent had been a good boy. A bit of a coward, but a good boy. It was a shame.

He nudged the squalling baby a little further, over the edge of the submarine dock. There was a splash, and a few moments later, steam, as the Phoenix tried in vain to combat the icy water and revive its host one more time.

Titan sighed, coughed at the steam, and returned to salvage what was left of his board table. It was all such a dreadful pity.

- - -

The weather in Wutai had not improved since AVALANCHE's last visit. The rain, while no longer torrential, still drenched the town determinedly day after day. The earth beneath their feet was barely visible through the rush of grounded raindrops downhill, toward the Leviathan. The river itself was swollen so much that the materia shop, the weapons shop, even Turtle's Paradise seemed adrift in its flow.

Cid wasn't happy about having to land his airship in the mire, but agreed (very reluctantly) that it would be far too dangerous to just let down a ladder in the middle of the storm. The walk to the gates wasn't particularly long or arduous, but Yuffie was pretty sure she hadn't had this much mud on her since she was four years old with a taste for mud pies and mud baths and mud anything, really, so long as she got to have a bath with Mama, afterward. She'd hated the way Chekhov had washed her hair. Mama was gentler. But then, Yuffie thought with a sudden pang, Mama hadn't had four boys.

She'd have to go talk to Chekhov's kids at some stage. Jonqui and Gaara were both older than her, but she was willing to bet that Ryyen was still pretty cut up at his mother's violent death. _Damn._ Why hadn't she thought of that? Too busy thinking about herself, _her_ father. Good rulers didn't do that.

_Not like I'll make that mistake ever again_, she thought wryly as she took a step and lost half her right leg to the cold, sucking mud. _I don't have any family left to concern myself with._ No close family, anyway. It wasn't as liberating a thought as she'd imagined it would be, when she was thirteen, sullen and stubborn and sad. She pulled her left leg free of the mud she'd set behind her, and made a face as the water rushing along the ground splashed up colder and higher to her thigh. She was never going to get these shoes clean. They'd never be yellow again, that was for sure.

She'd never been gladder to see Katsura as when they stepped through the gates and the young woman hastened to the edge of Shakhai's porch to greet them with – Yuffie had to laugh – several fishing boats.

"It's easier to get around this way, these days," she explained as Yuffie tried to stifle her giggles. "…although your party seems to have grown since last you were here." She glanced in polite confusion at the Bahamut-Imbued, and Yuffie mastered her amusement at once.

"Thanks for the boats, Katsura, and thank you for thinking of us." She interrupted Cloud as he opened his mouth. "Would you be able to do me another favour?"

Katsura smiled at that. "I am yours to command, Lady," she returned, the levity in her tone tempered by her usual serious, determined attitude. Yuffie didn't lessen the gravity of the moment by smiling in return.

"Please gather Gen, Roko, and Asako, and send word to any other elders of that generation that Lady Kisaragi would be honoured to speak with them, of important matters regarding the Wutai War." At Katsura's slightly surprised expression, she added, "Not Kanzaemon. He shouldn't be outside in this weather." She gestured to the others and stepped into the larger of the shallow fishing craft, hoping that such a short, simple trip wouldn't make her feel sick, and – knowing her own luck – doubting it.

Katsura's eyes softened into another smile as she knelt to steady the boat, and nodded deeply. "It shall be done, Lady. I shall escort them to your door myself." There was a twang of amusement in her accent as she added, "**Pid banrybc oui cruimt dyga desa du pydra vencd, Myto.** Asako **famm myikr, pid** Roko **famm hud dyga gehtmo du dra mak oui yna vmycrehk, hun dra sit ibuh ed.**"

Yuffie scooped up a handful of the rain that had pooled in the bottom of the fishing boat and threw it past her friend's ear, while Aeris squeaked and held up her hands as though the makeshift projectile had been intended for her. Katsura retaliated by waiting until Aeris was seated, and then viciously rocking the boat. Yuffie laughed.

"You'll be the sorrier when I vomit on you, Katsura! I win!" She bounced in her seat, but stopped immediately when she caught sight of the old woman who had come to the door of old Shakhai's house.

"**Oui'mm pa dra cunnean frah cra sygac oui fycr ed, ouihk Myto**." Asako's voice was cracked and weathered like the bark of a thousand year tree. Yuffie straightened her back and her features; unlike the similarly aged Roko, Asako was a joker by nature, but people who crossed her had a tendency of vanishing, and showing up several days later with impressive welts and bruises. She stared hard at Yuffie, her narrowed eyes a clear and vibrant copper despite her age, and climbed into the boat beside the ninja as though this had been the plan all along. Yuffie and Katsura knew better than to try to tell the woman differently.

Asako's bright eyes remained fixed on Yuffie's face, but when she spoke, it was to Katsura. "**Oui haat uhmo pnehk** Roko **yht** Gen. **Keja ic yh ruin**." She reached out with a slightly softer look to pat Yuffie's suddenly tight-clenched hand. "**Vun drec, oui famm naat uhmo dra drnaa uv ic.**"

Yuffie and Katsura stared at her in surprise for a moment; Katsura bowed her head suddenly. "**Oac**, Asako. **Yc oui cyo**." Yuffie felt a dreadful excitement begin to rise in her throat, something that would surely form into a whoop if she didn't do something. She bit her tongue and Asako patted her hand again. Then she looked up at the rest of AVALANCHE, still standing beneath the shelter of the porch, and knee-deep in mud.

"You want keep old woman out in rain?" She demanded suddenly, and Yuffie had to bite her tongue again as even Reno hastily straightened. "Hurry up! Get in boat!" There was a flurry of movement, and Yuffie felt that excitement fizz down into a more manageable, less volatile amusement at the way Vincent had to move like an old man to avoid flicking mud onto Asako's robes, at the way Sephiroth barely caught the tail of his braid before it slipped into the silt-muck that adorned the floor of the other vessel. Yuffie felt a squeeze on her wrist, and looked fondly at the ancient woman at her side, stronger and more dangerous than any dragon's fang.

"**E muja oui, Knyhtsy** Asako."

Asako returned the expression with a wicked gleam in her bright, mischievous eyes. "**Uv luinca oui tu, bad.**"

- - -

A/N: This chapter dedicated to my grandmother and my stepmother. Asako seems to be exactly what would happen if you smooshed them into the same body, and they got along at all. Sorry the chapter took so long, once again, and I hope it's enough to keep you all going. As always, comments and criticisms are very much appreciated.

And since I know some of you have trouble with Al Bhed, here are the translations.

Katsura: It shall be done, Lady. **But perhaps you should take time to bathe first, Lady.** Asako **will laugh, but** Roko **will not take kindly to the leg you are flashing, nor the mud upon it.  
**Yuffie: You'll be the sorrier when I vomit on you, Katsura! I win!  
Asako: **You'll be the sorrier when she makes you wash it, young Lady.  
**Asako: **You need only bring **Roko** and **Gen**. Give us an hour.  
**Asako: **For this, you will need only the three of us.  
**Katsura: **Yes**, Asako. **As you say**.  
Asako: You want keep old woman out in rain? Hurry up! Get in boat!  
Yuffie: **I love you, Grandma** Asako.  
Asako: **Of course you do, pet.**


End file.
